Island Tower at Polynesian Villas & Bungalows

[MagicDVC]

It's so strange that bungalows are available for points, but not cash.
However, studios are not available for points, but are available for cash.

Since they have sold the points for the bungalows, they aren't available for cash until the breakage period (60 days out). They can forecast units that will end up going to breakage and rent them early.

 

[CWTC]

They can forecast units that will end up going to breakage and rent them early.

I didn’t know that - how far out can they forecast that? 180 days? 120 days?

 

[CWTC]

what is this sorcery you speak of?

Posts 8,10, 38 of this thread

 

[Sandisw]

I’m not sure it’s that strange. Disney owns about 2% of points but I doubt that’s enough to block a significant amount of bungalows. If PVB owners trade out to a cruise or something then Disney has those points. Otherwise they have to wait until the breakage period (60 days) to offer them as cash. Or at least that’s my understanding.

When we stayed 8 nights in a bungalow last year, it seemed like most were empty. We saw neighbors for 1 or 2 nights and rarely saw anyone else on the boardwalk. I’d love to know occupancy statistics on them.

DVC can actually pull units prior to the 60 days by anticipating, based on trends, when things are open. They have the right to anticipate breakage and pull earlier...if they know that most of the bungalows are not booked by 60 days for certain periods, they can actually offer them for cash before then.

 

[CWTC]

They have the right to anticipate breakage and pull earlier...if they know that most of the bungalows are not booked by 60 days for certain periods, they can actually offer them for cash before then.

I didn’t know that! How far out can they do that? A year? 6 months?

 

[MarkNC2Disney]

The plunge pool is amazing! We never went to any of the other pools!

Almost had me. Thought you were a real customer until I read this part

 

[MarkNC2Disney]

Mobile order pickup from the TS restaurant would be fantastic (ala Kona Cafe).

 

[CWTC]

Almost had me. Thought you were a real customer until I read this part

Why would I go to a main pool? The plunge pool is quiet, nice view, no fighting for lounge chairs, my wine refills are in the fridge, and my snacks are in the room/fridge. Waaay better than the noisy main pools!

 

[RaymOOOnd]

May be a nice hangout spot for my toddlers until they're about 19 years old or whatever seems to be the average age of the rowdy population at the "kiddie" pool as it currently exists

 

[MarkNC2Disney]

Why would I go to a main pool? The plunge pool is quiet, nice view, no fighting for lounge chairs, my wine refills are in the fridge, and my snacks are in the room/fridge. Waaay better than the noisy main pools!

Have rarely heard anyone so enthusiastically endorse the tiny “plunge” pool

 

[Bmramaut]

Have rarely heard anyone so enthusiastically endorse the tiny “plunge” pool

Toddlers love it! They can sit and splash. We had a wonderful time hanging out at the plunge pool. When it rained we hung out at the bar for coverage. I wish they were putting in another splash pad. The current one is so overran. It’s going to be worse with the new tower. My kids love the splash pad areas so this is a big deterrent for us.

 

[hockeydad21]

Thoughts on the pool:

- The angle of this new rendering is poor in the sense that it isn't designed to showcase vegetation or theming. In the immediate foreground of the pic are the concrete pool deck and then the pool itself. If you took this sort of close up image at other Disney pools, the result would be similar. There's simply nowhere to put landscaping. Large palm trees and other vegetation are present further off in the distance, but perspective causes them to be downplayed. Here's another angle of the same resort, adjacent to same pool about 40-50' away:

View attachment 867718

- To the left of the pool rendering is about 1/2 of the pool deck which we haven't seen yet. Not sure if that's a choice on Disney's part or simply happenstance. At a minimum, there's a kids water play area which is still unrevealed and more deck space. Maybe bungalows.

- Island Tower is growing the number of resort rooms / guests by about 30%. To my eyes, this third pool is increasing the pool capacity by more than 30%. (See image below.) Maybe it's not the dramatic increase some were hoping for, but I don't think it's wildly out of line for the resort.

- There will be only one feature pool at the Poly, but that's not unique for WDW deluxe resorts: Grand Floridian, Wilderness, BoardWalk, OKW, Riviera. AKL has two feature pools...but also twice as many rooms and no "quiet pools."

- I don't see the Lava Pool getting "more crowded" simply because the number of pool chairs sets a practical limit on how many can visit.

- The Lava Pool will hold the most appeal. But if its only advantage is the slide, it's not a place that all groups will expect to camp out for hours on end. Island Tower will probably host a greater ratio of adult groups (Duo studios, DVC in general) and the water play area adds value for families. Today the Oasis pool is enjoyed by many, and this new addition seems to be a step up compared to that. Forgive the pun but water finds its own level. If the Lava pool is too full, people will go elsewhere.

View attachment 867717

It will impact other pools, but it was always going to impact the main pool. This was always planned to be a small pool (even the original artist rendering wasn’t a large pool).

As for resort occupancy, the tower is not even doubling PVB max capacity. Original PVB max capacity is 1960.

We don’t know the number of each room type, but there have been educated guesses. Somewhere I read tower adds 1100-1200 max capacity. We know the duos sleep 2 (estimate of 34), studios sleep 4 (estimate of 97), 1BRs sleep 5 (estimate of 24), only the 2BRs (counting dedicate and kickoffs estimate of 63) sleep 9, 2BR penthouse (estimate of 4) sleep 8.

In terms of the overall Poly resort, it is probably closer to a 20% capacity increase.

BLT 428 villas vs Island Tower 268. Comparatively, Island Tower also benefits from having no 12/13 person grand villas and several dozen 2-person Duo Studios.

If the estimated room mix for Island Tower proves to be accurate, IT will host fewer than half the number of guests as BLT. I have max occupancy of IT at 1175 vs 2697 for BLT.


True. But if the new pool didn't exist, those longhouse guests would be visiting one of the other two pools. Proportionally, this looks like a net gain for the resort, regardless of whether people think it looks "small."

Thank you for putting some thought into this! Your analysis is making me feel a lot better about this pool situation because it does make sense when you look at the numbers. I'm still in favor of them jazzing up this tower pool a bit with some Polynesian/Hawaiian touches, but at least the overall guest to pool ratio should be improving.

Now we just need Poly to issue pool wristbands to cut down on non-guest usage!

 

[hockeydad21]

Toddlers love it! They can sit and splash. We had a wonderful time hanging out at the plunge pool. When it rained we hung out at the bar for coverage. I wish they were putting in another splash pad. The current one is so overran. It’s going to be worse with the new tower. My kids love the splash pad areas so this is a big deterrent for us.

They are putting in a splash pad at the tower pool. Early designs showed a manta ray and an outrigger as focal points of the splash pad. Unsure if there have been any last minute design changes though.

 

[CWTC]

Have rarely heard anyone so enthusiastically endorse the tiny “plunge” pool

I suspect it has something to do with our group size - 2 or 3 adults at most, no kids.

Also it’s pretty cool to be sitting in the plunge pool, wine in hand and watch the electric light parade and/or fireworks.

I’m 100% serious that we are buying a chunk of SAP+ to stay in the bungalows for a week on a more regular basis!

 

[AstroBlasters]

Thank you for putting some thought into this! Your analysis is making me feel a lot better about this pool situation because it does make sense when you look at the numbers. I'm still in favor of them jazzing up this tower pool a bit with some Polynesian/Hawaiian touches, but at least the overall guest to pool ratio should be improving.

Now we just need Poly to issue pool wristbands to cut down on non-guest usage!

If Poly can use VGF’s gym, then VGF can use Poly’s pool with a castle view.

 

[Sandisw]

DVC can actually pull units prior to the 60 days by anticipating, based on trends, when things are open. They have the right to anticipate breakage and pull earlier...if they know that most of the bungalows are not booked by 60 days for certain periods, they can actually offer them for cash before then.

It would never be more than 11 months but it’s not defined. It simply says that they have the right to anticipate it.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Is that definitely a legit pic? The original source of the photo was a pretty small account on Instagram, I’ve not seen it anywhere official…..yet.

It’s on Disney’s webpage, click on the “View Gallery” button on the image and scroll to image 7. It was there last week when bookings opened, I didn’t realize it was a new rendering or I would have posted it.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/polynesian-villas-bungalows/

 

[Sykes]

Have rarely heard anyone so enthusiastically endorse the tiny “plunge” pool

I've never stayed in the PVB Bungalows but I've stayed in a number of other villas that have tiny plunge pools and they are one of my favorite things in the world and I now explicitly seek them out when practical. The last time I had one I probably spent 5 hours a day in it. Morning coffee? I'll take that while I'm soaking in the plunge pool. Mid-day reading? Plunge pool. Evening cocktails? Plunge pool. I imagine that those that have private pools at home would find it a bit less exciting, but I find them to be a tremendously relaxing way to avoid the crowds at the public pools.

 

[CarolynFH]

it was a new rendering

Emphasis on the "rendering" - it's not a photo, just an artist's interpretation of what he's been told the pool area would look like.

@tjkraz, thanks for the overhead-view site drawings - they help to put the size issue into better perspective for me.

 

[kilik64]

It’s on Disney’s webpage, click on the “View Gallery” button on the image and scroll to image 7. It was there last week when bookings opened, I didn’t realize it was a new rendering or I would have posted it.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/polynesian-villas-bungalows/

Ha whats funny is they updated those but still have an old pic for the longhouse studio