Island Tower at Polynesian Villas & Bungalows

[supercarrie]

I’m not an expert but I don’t think that closing a contract allows a re-write up until that point.

Right, I am just reporting what my guide has said in writing (and via recorded line) multiple times. I am not claiming any legal right to do do. In fact, I was shocked he offered this, which is why I confirmed it several times.

A quick segue…I actually have a non delayed close question! With the angle of the Island Tower, will any of the Seven Seas Lagoon rooms look out towards GF versus the lagoon? Wondering if they will feel a bit like Riv so close to CB.

 

[accm]

@Sandisw have you seen this before? It seems like everyone would do it and create their own 90-day incentive window. Wagering on new incentives is a much-discussed topic on here, and you’d think such an obvious loophole would be well-known.

Not @Sandisw, but I know this can be done. We decided to add a direct contract back in 2021. Chose AKV because at the time there was a promo going on. We had a delayed closing due to spreading our payments out so we could use our credit card. Sometime before our final payment, our guide called us saying they were running a different promo at BLT (our home resort), and if we wanted to change out our contract so we were buying BLT points instead. We said yes, got a new contract, and if i remember correctly, were able to break out the remaining payment over 3 months again. To really make my poor guides life harder, a little bit after we signed everything, I decided we should probably get some more points, so once again, we resigned everything with the additional points.

When VGF2 eventually came on sale, our guide messaged us again. I was seriously tempted, but decided I'd rather have all of our points in one resort.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

I am inclined to agree with @DonMacGregor that this feels like a desperate sales tactic (or at least an acknowledgment that they are already having trouble selling RIV while people “wait to see” what will be available at PVB sometime this summer/fall)— but I also think (and I believe @Sandisw alluded to this as well) it’s an indication that PVB is going to be significantly more expensive so they aren’t that worried if people “upgrade” to PVB (worst case Poly does crazy numbers and RIV keeps on renting cash rooms like AUL). I also think it bodes ill for any plans to further discount RIV between now and October.

I see why it benefits Disney because it moves people from excitement to commitment, and once you’ve lost a big deposit, you’re less likely to walk away entirely (and more psychologically likely to reinforce why buying was smart), but they might also be able to upsell you from $30k at RIV to $40k at PVB after you’ve had a month or to to acclimatize yourself to the $30k you’ve already spent.

 

[TheDailyMoo]

but they might also be able to upsell you from $30k at RIV to $40k at PVB after you’ve had a month or to to acclimatize yourself to the $30k you’ve already

This is some real sales psychology here. On a smaller level it’s like when I overplayed for a flight months ago but then I’m offered to upgrade for what seems like “not much more” I totally forgot I paid way too much for the original ticket.

Definitely smacks of desperation but it seems to be working and it’s great for those that are buying contracts right now. Gives them options they normally might not have. Win/win

 

[Patsaizan]

What are MB points? I can’t figure out what the abbreviation stands for. Thanks.

 

[intamin]

What are MB points? I can’t figure out what the abbreviation stands for. Thanks.

Magical Beginnings. It's when Disney essentially buys back your first use year's worth of points for 20 dollars per point.

 

[MyDogTink]

What are MB points? I can’t figure out what the abbreviation stands for. Thanks.

Magical Beginnings where you can sell back current UY points for a cash rebate. I think it’s recently been $20 or $22 per point. One of the specialists here will confirm the amount! No idea though if they will offer it for Poly. They may not need to offer incentives for this.

 

[maui22]

A quick segue…I actually have a non delayed close question! With the angle of the Island Tower, will any of the Seven Seas Lagoon rooms look out towards GF versus the lagoon? Wondering if they will feel a bit like Riv so close to CB.

Back home now, so I am going off memory. I believe the tower rooms directly facing the lagoon will have GF to the side a bit. Personally, I enjoy seeing the other resorts regardless of which one I am staying at. Example, when at GF seeing CR and Poly. Poly seeing GF and CR. BLT seeing GF and Poly.

The end of the tower building that faces toward GF is going to have some really nice sunset views. We were on the pier and enjoyed the sunset being between the wedding chapel and GF.

 

[Cabius]

The first set of points with PVB tower will be 2024, and even then, some UYs might be left out.

So, buying before or after September won’t matter since thr tower is opening this year. What people buying RIV who have UYs later in the year lose are the 2023 points.

Is this a sure thing, or could they defer point-based bookings until January 2025 in order to avoid giving any 2024 points?

Or would they actually have to wait until January to declare points and start sales?

 

[TheDailyMoo]

Back home now, so I am going off memory. I believe the tower rooms directly facing the lagoon will have GF to the side a bit. Personally, I enjoy seeing the other resorts regardless of which one I am staying at. Example, when at GF seeing CR and Poly. Poly seeing GF and CR. BLT seeing GF and Poly.

The end of the tower building that faces toward GF is going to have some really nice sunset views. We were on the pier and enjoyed the sunset being between the wedding chapel and GF.

Don't you almost feel like the tower is now going to make the Poly and GF feel almost like a resort complex. Obviously there are no reciprocal use benefits but the whole area is beginning to feel like a cohesive unit. That's sort of the feeling I got while staying at the Poly in April and the tower wasn't even looking very built. Next month I'll be at the GF and I want to see if I have that same "sister property" feel from that side.

I agree with you though I like looking at the other properties.

 

[Sandisw]

Is this a sure thing, or could they defer point-based bookings until January 2025 in order to avoid giving any 2024 points?

Or would they actually have to wait until January to declare points and start sales?

Technically, yes, you are right...they could delay declaring rooms until 2025 into the association, and not start new points until then....but, given that they are actually opening the resort, even to cash guests, and gave DVC owners first crack at cash rooms, my guess is that they would not do that and that 2024 will be the first year of points.

 

[Sandisw]

I’m not an expert but I don’t think that closing a contract allows a re-write up until that point.

DVD can allow whatever they want, up until the contract has been officially closed. They must return a deposit if an owner wants out within 10 days...after that, they are entitled to keep a buyers deposit if they don't want to follow throught.

However, nothing prevents DVD from allowing someone out after the 10 days if they want, and nothing prevents them from rewriting a contract at any point until the contract has closed.

What DVD has always done is allow owners within that 10 days to rewrite for better incentives because they can walk away. This whole letting people have 90 days to hold off closing before deciding final price, or to even switch resorts is not something that I have ever seen....its weird that we have reports of people saying that their guide has gotten approval to do that....

My guess is that they don't care at this point because if someone wants to switch, its going to be to DVD's benefit to let them do it, or, they realize that sales are unlikely to start within those 90 days and not all owners buying even know about the 90 days option...so, the number of potential buyers who might even be eligible, are small....

 

[supercarrie]

Not @Sandisw, but I know this can be done. We decided to add a direct contract back in 2021. Chose AKV because at the time there was a promo going on. We had a delayed closing due to spreading our payments out so we could use our credit card. Sometime before our final payment, our guide called us saying they were running a different promo at BLT (our home resort), and if we wanted to change out our contract so we were buying BLT points instead. We said yes, got a new contract, and if i remember correctly, were able to break out the remaining payment over 3 months again. To really make my poor guides life harder, a little bit after we signed everything, I decided we should probably get some more points, so once again, we resigned everything with the additional points.

When VGF2 eventually came on sale, our guide messaged us again. I was seriously tempted, but decided I'd rather have all of our points in one resort.

Thanks for sharing. It’s reassuring that this has been done before.

 

[Tatebeck]

Just to button things up:

I just got off the phone call with my guide. We went ahead with the 300 RIV point purchase as planned, and I asked her some questions. She did catch the problem with my use year and she had to set it up for a 60 day close so we can close the contract and do Magical Beginnings before our September use year starts again. She said if it wasn't for the September use year, she would have had no problem with getting 90 days.

I did clarify and confirm again that we have 10 days to cancel completely if we wanted, but that after the 10 day period up until final closing, we would still be able to change things with the contract, including point numbers, and even rewriting and switching the purchase to Polynesian points if they happen to have great incentives. She acted like it was no problem at all, though she did say that she personally thought that the current RIV deal is better than what they will offer for either RIV or Poly during the summer. (She of course said just after that they had no concrete info, so definitely just her personal opinion) @supercarrie and I confirmed between ourselves that we have different guides too, so it is not just one guide offering things that they aren't usually supposed to.

Maybe they are really just hurting for sales or want to get them on the books now, or maybe its just an unusual situation that most people don't ask about, since it seems like it has been done back in 2021 according to @accm

Either way as much as I want the opening Poly Tower offers to be great deals this makes me feel like they will not have a great opening offering and they just want to get people off the RIV/Poly fence and buying RIV now if they want it, even if they have no concrete info to share yet.

 

[iakona]

I want to speculate on the Penthouses a bit, if I may.

What we know about them: they're a 2BR with a description that seems to emphasize the gathering spaces. The two photos shared share a standard (for 2BR) secondary bedroom and a larger living/dining area:
View attachment 868738

The (logical) place most speculation has placed these Penthouses is at the top of the center tower (highlighted in orange):View attachment 868740

What I want to highlight about this location is that there are 2 floors of '6-bay' space, which doesn't quite fit in with the description/photos we have.

A brief explanation about 'bays':
DVC and hotel rooms can almost always be thought of as different combinations of rectangular segments with varied internal design/layout. I'm calling each of these rectangular segments a 'bay'.

How some other rooms use bays:

• Deluxe Studios use 1 bay
• Duo Studios also use 1 bay, but the bay isn't as deep
• 1 Bedrooms use 2 bays
• 2 Bedrooms use 3 bays
• Most 3 Bedroom Grand Villas use 6 bays, with some deviation

Let's use BoardWalk as an example to demonstrate this.

Deluxe Studio has one bay:
View attachment 868746

A 1 Bedroom has 2 bays:
View attachment 868747

A 2 Bedroom has 3 bays:
View attachment 868749

And a Grand Villa has 6 bays:
View attachment 868751
Of note, the gathering area is 3 bays itself (bays 3, 4, and 5).

But there has been some recent deviation! For example, Grand Flo sticks to the 6 bay concept, but the bays are a bit oversized compared to normal and they chose to create a separated den space:
View attachment 868752

And at Copper Creek they use a pretty different arrangement of roughly 7 bays, with the main bath getting an entire bay to itself!View attachment 868753
The gathering space is still ~3 bays here though.

And at the latest Grand Villas, the ones at Disneyland Hotel, are actually 8 bays over two floors, here's the gathering space on the first floor:
View attachment 868754
Notably, the gathering space is still 3 bays.


All this to ask: how are they going to use 6 bays for the Penthouses? The images they shared shows what is very likely a 2-bay gathering space (2x the size of a normal 2BR, worthy of differentiation), as well as a standard layout secondary bedroom. In theory, that means that the Penthouses only need to be a 4-bay room.

Speculative, alternative options:

• The Penthouses are the 4-bays in the middle and bookended by Deluxe Studios.
• The Penthouses have the grandest bathrooms in all of DVC, with bathrooms taking up the end bays. And also having sliding glass doors?
• The Penthouses aren't at these 6-bay locations at the top of the center tower.
  • Alternatively, could be the 4-bay spaces that are just below but to both sides of the speculated area.
  • If this is the case, then there's two floors of 6-bay space that is unaccounted for...
• The kitchen in the Penthouse gets its own bay, leaving only 1 mystery bay.
• There's also a den area in the Penthouse, similar to the VGF GV, again leaving 1 mystery bay.
• The main bedroom gets ~2 bays in the Penthouse, again leaving 1 mystery bay.

Not all of the above fully explain the jump from 4 to 6 bays on their own, but they could combine to explain the difference, maybe? Either way, I'm pretty fascinated by these 2BR Penthouses.

The penthouses are almost certainly single-story 6-bay units. The bays in the middle section of the tower are only deep enough to hold duo studios, so there is not enough room in one bay for a bedroom with 2 queen beds and a bathroom; the bathrooms would need to be in their own bays. This is even more evident on the monorail side of the tower, where the outer two bays aren’t even big enough for a duo studio. The penthouses are unlikely to be 2 stories because there isn’t room for a staircase in the kitchen/living area.

Edit: upon closer inspection of the most recent construction photos and the site ground level floor plans, it appears I am mistaken about the depth of the middle bays of the tower. It’s a bit of an optical illusion with how the surrounding sections are offset. I still think it is likely that the penthouses are single-story though, occupying 4 bays, with a TPV studio on each end lakeside, and a duo studio at each end on the monorail side. The smaller balcony on the top floor is likely designed to improve the view from the living area of the 9th floor penthouses, which would otherwise feel too enclosed if there was a double-depth balcony above it.

 

[intamin]

Magical Beginnings where you can sell back current UY points for a cash rebate. I think it’s recently been $20 or $22 per point. One of the specialists here will confirm the amount! No idea though if they will offer it for Poly. They may not need to offer incentives for this.

It was 22 dollars for a little while and then after everyone sold back their VGF points during the blowout sale they dropped it back down to 20 dollars per point.

 

[intamin]

Just to button things up:

I just got off the phone call with my guide. We went ahead with the 300 RIV point purchase as planned, and I asked her some questions. She did catch the problem with my use year and she had to set it up for a 60 day close so we can close the contract and do Magical Beginnings before our September use year starts again. She said if it wasn't for the September use year, she would have had no problem with getting 90 days.

I did clarify and confirm again that we have 10 days to cancel completely if we wanted, but that after the 10 day period up until final closing, we would still be able to change things with the contract, including point numbers, and even rewriting and switching the purchase to Polynesian points if they happen to have great incentives. She acted like it was no problem at all, though she did say that she personally thought that the current RIV deal is better than what they will offer for either RIV or Poly during the summer. (She of course said just after that they had no concrete info, so definitely just her personal opinion) @supercarrie and I confirmed between ourselves that we have different guides too, so it is not just one guide offering things that they aren't usually supposed to.

Maybe they are really just hurting for sales or want to get them on the books now, or maybe its just an unusual situation that most people don't ask about, since it seems like it has been done back in 2021 according to @accm

Either way as much as I want the opening Poly Tower offers to be great deals this makes me feel like they will not have a great opening offering and they just want to get people off the RIV/Poly fence and buying RIV now if they want it, even if they have no concrete info to share yet.

In sales it's always better to have someone sign up for something and then make them have to opt out down the line than to have them not sign up at all. It's like signing up for a free Netflix trial.. times 5000 lol.

 

[ehh]

The penthouses are almost certainly single-story 6-bay units. The bays in the middle section of the tower are only deep enough to hold duo studios, so there is not enough room in one bay for a bedroom with 2 queen beds and a bathroom; the bathrooms would need to be in their own bays. This is even more evident on the monorail side of the tower, where the outer two bays aren’t even big enough for a duo studio. The penthouses are unlikely to be 2 stories because there isn’t room for a staircase in the kitchen/living area.

Edit: upon closer inspection of the most recent construction photos and the site ground level floor plans, it appears I am mistaken about the depth of the middle bays of the tower. It’s a bit of an optical illusion with how the surrounding sections are offset. I still think it is likely that the penthouses are single-story though, occupying 4 bays, with a TPV studio on each end lakeside, and a duo studio at each end on the monorail side. The smaller balcony on the top floor is likely designed to improve the view from the living area of the 9th floor penthouses, which would otherwise feel too enclosed if there was a double-depth balcony above it.

I strongly agree it's not 2 floors, I've found those theories implausible.

I forgot all about the PV Penthouses on the other side. Good call looking at the bookending bays there! I think that further points toward single-floor, 4-bay with some form of studio bookends as being most likely.

I guess now there's still an open question about a 3BR Penthouse Lock-Off (or even 4BRLO) on the TPV side, following in the steps of the King Kamehameha Suite. Seems unlikely but could be cool.

 

[hockeydad21]

Don't you almost feel like the tower is now going to make the Poly and GF feel almost like a resort complex. Obviously there are no reciprocal use benefits but the whole area is beginning to feel like a cohesive unit. That's sort of the feeling I got while staying at the Poly in April and the tower wasn't even looking very built. Next month I'll be at the GF and I want to see if I have that same "sister property" feel from that side.

I agree with you though I like looking at the other properties.

I do wish there was a smidge more space between poly and GF, but I also love that I can easily access to GF’s restaurants via monorail, boat, or walking path. I guess you just gotta take the good with the bad

 

[maui22]

Don't you almost feel like the tower is now going to make the Poly and GF feel almost like a resort complex. Obviously there are no reciprocal use benefits but the whole area is beginning to feel like a cohesive unit. That's sort of the feeling I got while staying at the Poly in April and the tower wasn't even looking very built. Next month I'll be at the GF and I want to see if I have that same "sister property" feel from that side.

I agree with you though I like looking at the other properties.

I agree on it feeling like a cohesive unit. For others, go out to Poly pier and look from the TTC area and scan the rest of Poly, wedding chapel, and GF. It is one building after another with only small gaps. I can’t remember if I posted a sunset picture or the panoramic picture of Poly.

Because we like easy access to more resorts, restaurants, shops, etc it feels like an upgrade.

Personally, I feel like Poly, GF, and CR have always been a more spread out version of BC/YC, BW, Swab, Dolphin. Dec 17, it will be very easy to go from the tower to GF and back.

In my dreams, Disney would build something on the other side of TTC. I know they wanted to, but some have indicated the land isn’t buildable for a reasonable price. If they could build there and give a bridge or something to allow walking to CR it would complete the Seven Seas
lagoon walking circle.