New room concept: 'Family Studios' at Poly2 (speculation)

[Wendysofftoneverland]

I wish they'd build studios with more separation, like the rooms at Legoland. Sleep 5 with a bunk bed/trundle bed in a separate "room" (no door, but it is on the other side of the bathroom from the adults' bedroom). But then you wouldn't have a couch. Though I've slept on the Murphy bed at AoA and found those to be as comfortable as a real bed and wouldn't mind that as an option for the main "bedroom."

 

[TwingleMum]

I think the Poly needs more 1 bedroom and 2 bedroom options. I also am wondering what the caveats will be for the new Tower. Does the New Tower have a different Association and different booking window then the existing Poly DVC?? I would love to add on at the Poly but my family needs 2 bedroom usually but minimum of 1 bedroom. Its been such a PITA booking lately I don't want to compete against the world for a small number of rooms either.

 

[Sandisw]

I think the Poly needs more 1 bedroom and 2 bedroom options. I also am wondering what the caveats will be for the new Tower. Does the New Tower have a different Association and different booking window then the existing Poly DVC?? I would love to add on at the Poly but my family needs 2 bedroom usually but minimum of 1 bedroom. Its been such a PITA booking lately I don't want to compete against the world for a small number of rooms either.

There has been no announcement as to where Poly tower will be part of PVB or a brand new resort in its own association.

Some of the sales people when I was there a few weeks ago seemed to imply we might get info when the VDH info is announced but I think it was them just having wishful thinking so they can answer the question.

My guess is that we won’t get info until next fall.

 

[ehh]

Out of boredom/curiosity, I went back to the original Artist Rendering Concept to see what might have been indicated there in terms of bay configuration.



Red = 1-bay
Blue = 2-bay
Fuchsia = 3-bay
Green = GV

While artist renderings are very, very far from guarantees, it might show some directional thinking from DVC. VDH was actually pretty spot-on! So far construction appears to have deviated away from the passthrough squares that you see in a few place, but is otherwise staying faithful to these renders.

The towers that are standing today appear to be the tower portion immediately to the right of the GV tower (it's currently the tallest-so-far tower), and the wide GV tower is currently the short one.

Anyway, a breakdown of the bay configuration that I can see:

• Grand Villas: 1 or 2, depending on how many floors. Grand Villa area appears to be 8 bays wide, indicating likely 1 floor each.
• 3-bay rooms (e.g., 2 Bedroom Villas): 6
• 2-bay rooms with adjacent 1-bay room (e.g., a 1BR potentiallyfrom a 2BRLO, or a 'Family Studio'): 17
  • Of note, at least 7 of the 17 appear to have permanent dividers between the adjacent 1-bay room)
• 2-bay rooms, no adjacent 1-bay room (e.g., dedicated 1BR or dedicated 'Family Studio): 16
• 1-bay rooms (e.g., Deluxe Studios or Duo Studios): 79
  • Again, 17 of them are adjacent to a 2-bay room. Though no more than 10 of the 17 are likely lock-offs.

Broken down in traditional villa distributions, full lock-off splitting:

• Studios/Duos: 79
• 1 Bedroom: 33
• 2 Bedroom: 6
• Grand Villas: 2

Broken down in traditional villa distributions, no lock-off splitting and assuming all dividers are movable:

• Studios/Duos: 62
• 1 Bedroom: 16
• 2 Bedroom: 23
• Grand Villa: 2

Broken down in traditional villa distributions, no lock-off splitting but assuming permanent-seeming dividers are permanent:

• Studios/Duos: 69
• 1 Bedroom: 23 (or more)
• 2 Bedroom: 16 (or fewer)
• Grand Villa: 2

Honestly the middle breakdown with no lock-off splitting seems like a pretty ideal ratio! But it seems improbable considering the permanent-seeming dividers.

The apparent lack of dedicated 2BR is also concerning considering how much more popular they are than 1BR combined with the fact that 2BR are generally better than 2BRLO for families.

Other opinions/observations:

• Regardless of lock-off murkiness, it's studio-heavy. To me, this hints it's a new association.
• Upon further review, the 6 'dedicated' 3-bay rooms could actually be lock-offs with balcony dividers removed/folded back.
• There's too many dedicated 2-bay (1BR/Family Studio) rooms considering the relative unpopularity of 1BR
• There's too few dedicated 3-bay rooms. 4 of the 6 that are here have the cozy neighbor thing.
  • aside: the cozy neighbor thing slightly supports that this artist concept is informed by actual plans
• I think the imbalance of dedicated 2-bay and dedicated 3-bay (16-23 vs. 0-6) supports the idea of a high-occupancy 2-bay room, like a 'Family Studio'.
• There might be some first floor rooms on the right side of the image?
• I think the grid of studios below the GV(s) is kinda weird.

Nothing of the above takes into account the other side of the building, obviously. And again, artist mockups are not blueprints or submitted plans or anything like that, but it's very likely there was some leadership direction and leadership sign-off. The cozy neighbor thing supports that the artist(s) had real development plans when making this.

I think the strongest takeaway from this might be the studio-heavy nature, which points toward new association.

 

[Chuck S]

Given the existing Poly DVC already is mostly studios, and that no new typr of accommodation has been annountced, at all, I thnk your estimate of the number of studios is overly ambitious.And you estimate of only 2 GVs is under what we will see.

 

[ehh]

Given the existing Poly DVC already is mostly studios, and that no new typr of accommodation has been annountced, at all, I thnk your estimate of the number of studios is overly ambitious.And you estimate of only 2 GVs is under what we will see.

I'm only counting what's drawn. There are, quite clearly, only 1-2 GV visible from this angle. Maybe there's some on the other side of the building.

************

So the grid of studios below the GV(s) was bugging me so I zoomed in and realized that they might not all be 1-bay rooms. There are very prominent dividers protruding off the balconies that separate every bay, but it appears not all dividers go back to the wall, potentially leaving connected balconies. It's hard to tell with the render, but it's possible the four 1-bays down the middle are actually two 2-bays:



Red = 1-bay
Blue = 2-bay
Fuchsia = 3-bay
Green = GV


Redoing all the above breakdown work, a new breakdown of the bay configuration of the visible rooms:

• Grand Villas: 1 or 2, depending on how many floors. Grand Villa area appears to be 8 bays wide, indicating likely 1 floor each.
• 3-bay rooms (e.g., 2 Bedroom Villas): 6
• 2-bay rooms (e.g., a 1BR or a 'Family Studio'): 45
  • 10 have an adjacent 1-bay and a potentially movable separator
  • 19 have an adjacent 1-bay but a permanent-seeming separator
  • 16 have no adjacent 1-bay
• 1-bay rooms (e.g., Deluxe Studios or Duo Studios): 55
  • 10 have an adjacent 2-bay and a potentially movable separator
  • 19 have an adjacent 2-bay but a permanent-seeming separator
  • 26 have no adjacent 2-bay

Broken down in traditional villa distributions, full lock-off splitting:

• Studios/Duos: 55
• 1 Bedroom: 45
• 2 Bedroom: 6
• Grand Villas: 2

Broken down in traditional villa distributions, no lock-off splitting and assuming all dividers are movable:

• Studios/Duos: 26
• 1 Bedroom: 16
• 2 Bedroom: 6
• 2 Bedroom LO: 29
• Grand Villa: 2

Broken down in traditional villa distributions, no lock-off splitting but assuming permanent-seeming dividers are permanent:

• Studios/Duos: 45
• 1 Bedroom: 35
• 2 Bedroom: 6
• 2 Bedroom LO: 10
• Grand Villa: 2

Of course this is just one side of the towers, but none of these ratios align with modern demand. In fact, there is only a narrow band of lock-off arrangements where Studios > 2BR > 1BR > GV, regardless of permanent-seeming barriers.

Factoring in permanent-seeming barriers, there's just too many 2-bay rooms considering the relative popularity of Studios, 2BR, and 1BR.

One or more of these is almost certainly true:

• Artist rendering is not representative in significant ways (we know it's wrong in minor ways)
• Backside of the towers sort out all the inventory deficiencies in these lake/pool view categories (2BR SV galore!))
• Poly Tower will simply have a bad ratio of room inventory
  • Any room inventory where 1BR > 2BR is bad, so this is independent of association and what happens with the existing 360 Studios
• Poly Tower is using 2-bay rooms in a new way

 

[CarolynFH]

Not to spoil the fun, but -- What if what you've labeled GV ends up being a restaurant with an expensive prix fixe menu and glorious fireworks views?

 

[ehh]

Not to spoil the fun, but -- What if what you've labeled GV ends up being a restaurant with an expensive prix fixe menu and glorious fireworks views?

Ooo, that's possible!

I was identifying it as GV(s) due to VDH's similar take: 8 bays over 2 floors (4b x 2f), visually distinct from the outside, premium balcony usage/features, etc. But a fancy restaurant would be an interesting use of that space.

And not a fun spoiler at all. I think the speculation and the 'what if' analysis is the fun, so I'll dig in!

If that's the case, then there's a trickle-down effect. There's two paths to take:

1. There are no Grand Villas visible
2. Grand Villas are amongst the other rooms

#1 is boring and ends here.

But digging into #2, then the general idea of a GV is it's a 6+ bay room. Some GVs are single floor and some are multiple floors.

General observation for GVs: they don't have arbitrarily divided balconies except when absolutely necessary (Jambo made some choices...). So we need to look for 6+ bays that have undivided balconies. And there aren't any. The use of the space below the 'GV' I've marked would be where it would have to go, as no other tower is 6-bays wide.

So now we have to look at multi-floor options:

• In the rendering there are three arrangements of two-floors by 3-bays that could be a 6-bay GV.
  • Of note, these are all the 'dedicated' 2BR that are visible. Not great for the inventory mix.
  • This style of 2f x 3b GV would be similar to Kidani, VGC, BLT, SSR(ish)
• More interestingly, hypothetically some of the 2-bay arrangements could be 3-floor (or 4-floor) GVs. Could go something like this:
  • Top floor - main suite
  • Middle floor - living area and kitchen
  • Bottom floor - secondary bedrooms
  • There aren't many spots for these where there isn't also a divider between the floors.
    • But if the dividers between floors don't matter then there's a bunch of spots and it takes care of some of the excessive 2-bay arrangements we see.
  • Accessibility might be a minor challenge as there's stairs everywhere.
  • This type of GV would be unprecedented but certainly interesting.

Great 'what if' question!

 

[Sandisw]

Look at how many windows are part of the RIV GV…it is the entire floor….couldn’t some of this concept be incorporated in the Poly tower?..

 

[ehh]

Look at how many windows are part of the RIV GV…it is the entire floor….couldn’t some of this concept be incorporated in the Poly tower?..

View attachment 751986

Riviera GV is 6 bays like a lot of the GVs:


The only spot where there's 6 bays horizontally in a single tower at Poly 2 is under the GV/Restaurant area, which is 8 bays wide.

But there's dividers/separators placed across the balcony there, which doesn't entirely eliminate GVs going there, but it's an odd choice to have a full-width balcony and force people to go inside to get to another part of it.

 

[Sandisw]

Riviera GV is 6 bays like a lot of the GVs:
View attachment 751988

The only spot where there's 6 bays horizontally in a single tower at Poly 2 is under the GV/Restaurant area, which is 8 bays wide.

But there's dividers/separators placed across the balcony there, which doesn't entirely eliminate GVs going there, but it's an odd choice to have a full-width balcony and force people to go inside to get to another part of it.

But the whole building isn’t done yet is it?? Aren’t there still more pieces to add??

 

[ehh]

But the whole building isn’t done yet is it?? Aren’t there still more pieces to add??

Definitely more to add!

Buildings in green are the ones that are being constructed right now. Wing buildings in blue will come later, presumably.


Numbers are the number of bays wide each tower is. The 4/4/3-wide wing towers are unlikely to have a GV unless it's multiple floors. I'm skeptical the 8-bay on the left facing the pool will have a GV because of the inferior view.

Forgot the tower next to the 3-bay tower is 6-wide. It could fit GVs but also has clear dividers every 2 bays in this render.

 

[maui22]

I like the idea of Family/Ohana suites. IMHO, of the mistakes DVC made with PVB is not putting in a small stackable W/D or larger kitchenette in the original studios. Jumbo bathroom wasted too much space.

If the tower were on the TTC side, we would definitely be buying. We would probably see all our points elsewhere for this one. Not a fan of having to access to Epcot from this side of Poly. Either ride resort monorail to TTC (4th stop from Poly) or walk further to TTC. Then ride monorail to Epcot.

 

[ehh]

I like the idea of Family/Ohana suites. IMHO, of the mistakes DVC made with PVB is not putting in a small stackable W/D or larger kitchenette in the original studios. Jumbo bathroom wasted too much space.

If the tower were on the TTC side, we would definitely be buying. We would probably see all our points elsewhere for this one. Not a fan of having to access to Epcot from this side of Poly. Either ride resort monorail to TTC (4th stop from Poly) or walk further to TTC. Then ride monorail to Epcot.

the name Ohana Suite/Studio/Villa was there the whole time, that's fantastic!

Agreed on the distance issue...the walk from Poly2 to TTC is probably not something we'd do, would probably just drive to Epcot instead.

 

[Sammie]

I think TJ got it correct in the early look article he wrote in DVC News.

How many rooms will there be in the new building? ​

Disney was not specific, which leaves us to study the artwork for clues. Balcony layouts and configurations are really the only tool we have available to judge. In the artwork below, our educated guess is that the rooms highlighted in red are dedicated Deluxe Studio Villas, the yellow represents dedicated One Bedroom Villas and the green is Two Bedroom Villas, either lockoff or dedicated.

Applying this logic to the full artwork--which is difficult in some areas due to building angles and obstructions--we estimate the following:

• Dedicated Studio: 42
• Dedicated One Bedroom: 24
• Two Bedroom (type undetermined): 40

We are also guessing there are three Grand Villas on the top floor, one facing directly at Seven Seas Lagoon with two others bracketing it on either side.
That gives us a total of 109 villas visible in the concept. That represents only one side of the bulding, most of which could be labeled Theme Park View. There are almost certainly some rooms on the other side of the building, perhaps with wings which extend perpendicular to this structure more than doubling the room count.
Our educated guess is that there will be about 200-250 villas in the new building.

 

[Sammie]

It really is strange that we've seen no concept art for the interiors yet.

Have they shared interior art before sales begin in the past?

 

[ehh]

I think TJ got it correct in the early look article he wrote in DVC News.

How many rooms will there be in the new building? ​

Disney was not specific, which leaves us to study the artwork for clues. Balcony layouts and configurations are really the only tool we have available to judge. In the artwork below, our educated guess is that the rooms highlighted in red are dedicated Deluxe Studio Villas, the yellow represents dedicated One Bedroom Villas and the green is Two Bedroom Villas, either lockoff or dedicated.

Applying this logic to the full artwork--which is difficult in some areas due to building angles and obstructions--we estimate the following:

• Dedicated Studio: 42
• Dedicated One Bedroom: 24
• Two Bedroom (type undetermined): 40

We are also guessing there are three Grand Villas on the top floor, one facing directly at Seven Seas Lagoon with two others bracketing it on either side.
That gives us a total of 109 villas visible in the concept. That represents only one side of the bulding, most of which could be labeled Theme Park View. There are almost certainly some rooms on the other side of the building, perhaps with wings which extend perpendicular to this structure more than doubling the room count.
Our educated guess is that there will be about 200-250 villas in the new building.

Similar methodology, but we might treating the separators a little differently

TJ and I are in lock-step on the building on the left and the top two floors of the building on the right. Difference is likely due to different opinions of the separators between the 1-bay and 2-bay rooms on the lower floors on the building on the right.

Looks like I need to track down some more artist renderings, that's a good view above. And looks like we both might have missed rooms on lower floors--I see two 1-bay rooms bottom center.

 

[Sammie]

Similar methodology, but we might treating the separators a little differently

TJ and I are in lock-step on the building on the left and the top two floors of the building on the right. Difference is likely due to different opinions of the separators between the 1-bay and 2-bay rooms on the lower floors on the building on the right.

Looks like I need to track down some more artist renderings, that's a good view above. And looks like we both might have missed rooms on lower floors--I see two 1-bay rooms bottom center.

Hard to tell with greenery too. I really think they will offer one and two bedrooms definitely because that's what has been requested.
I know some of the lower floors center will be lobby, restaurant, shop etc.

 

[aka Charles]

I love this idea of an "Ohana Suite" version of a 1-bedroom space.

What I like about a 1-bedroom over a studio is that we get a separate bedroom (in case someone needs a nap or somewhere to change without taking up the only bathroom), the full sized fridge, and the washer/dryer.

With this concept, we could get all three of those amenities (but not the full kitchen) and be able to sleep 6-7 instead of the 4-5 that a deluxe studio or a 1-bedroom normally sleeps. A 2-bedroom normally sleeps 8-9, so this would be a nice middle ground, and justify being double the points of a studio (like a 1-bedroom usually is) but still under the points for a 2-bedroom.

If this tower is designed without 2-bedroom lock-offs, it would make sense to have the full kitchens only in the 2-bedrooms and grand villas where they would much more likely be utilized.

Oh boy, this is going to cost me some money...
...because now I am thinking about a fixed week Ohana Suite.

 

[mamaofsix]

Have they shared interior art before sales begin in the past?

A ton of interior concept art was leaked before Reflections even started to clear land. They had art for every single room type as well as all of the common spaces and restaurants. Often those types of leaks are intentional. It's surprising nothing has been leaked yet for this one.