News about Treehouse Villas !! ??

[sharonmickey]

Anything new on the Treehouses?

 

[disneylooper]

Just took the boat from the French Quarter to DDD and the treehouses are all torn down now, there is some building going on one one site but the boat captain was unsure as to what it was.

 

[fall08CP]

They're torn down?? I took the boat less than 2 weeks ago and they were still up. I'll go sometime this week and see what the deal is.

 

[BostonRob]

We stayed in the treehouses when I was about 13 or 14 - so around 1985-87. I don't remember the inside but I remember them being very private. In fact, my friend and I had a scary adventure out in the "deep, dark woods" of the treehouses!

That was a great story. I'd be willing to be that is one of your best memories of WDW.

 

[disneylooper]

The boat captain said the last one was torn down last week, they are all gone. Last summer we were told that international students were living in them.

 

[kymom99]

Boat captain told us last week that they would be part of Saratoga Springs resort. He said they were torn down in the last couple weeks.

 

[BamaFan121s]

We were there the last week of May and rode the boat from POR to DTD. At that time most of them had been torn down--you could see where they *used* to be. There were only 2 or 3 left at the time standing that you could see from the boat.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

Awww, I wish they would have refurbished them.

 

[sharonmickey]

I was under the impression they were re-building the treehouses, in a slightly different blueprint. I thought Disney applied for building permits earlier this year. Does anyone know?

 

[paintnolish]

Aww! Was hoping they'd be refurbished, too. We stayed there in the 80's. I was quite young but remember the spiral staircase, deep bathtub, and all the windows! That really creeped me out at night!

 

[bytheblood]

This is what I had previously read:

WDWNewsToday DVC Treehouses?
Treehouses Aren’t Just For The Swiss….
By Tom Corless | February 19, 2008

By Scott Powers of the Orlando Sentinel

Hidden among the trees in an obscure part of Walt Disney World, one of Disney’s more unusual and largely forgotten housing options is getting new life. The giant resort intends to tear down and replace Disney’s Treehouse Villas, a community of 60 two-story housing units that have been used at various times as for-rent lodging, Disney Institute guest housing, and international student-worker housing.

The three-bedroom villas — essentially octagonal town houses on pedestals, looking a little like treehouses — are scattered throughout a forested back road between a Disney World golf course and a canal, where they have aged, sometimes not well, for 33 years.
While a few of them are in plain view to golfers on the Lake Buena Vista Golf Course and to resort guests who take a ferry-boat ride up the canal, they are well out of sight for the vast portion of the 100,000 or more people who occupy Disney World on any given day.

They’re the kind of place, said independent Disney World author and podcaster Lou Mongello, that only “Disney geeks like us” talk about. Mongello, who lives in New Jersey has even stayed in them a couple of times, though he did so decades ago. “The thing I remember about the villas, I liked so much, is you didn’t feel like you were in Florida. You didn’t feel like you were in Walt Disney World. It felt like you were remote and distant from Orlando and the theme parks and the hustle and bustle,” said Mongello, author of the two-volume The Walt Disney World Trivia Book. “It was lush and so green. Very lush.”

And a little bit hush-hush. Disney officials haven’t made much of the villas for years, and even now they aren’t willing to discuss their plans in any detail. The company sought and received permission from the South Florida Water Management District recently to tear down the villas and replace them. Disney World spokeswoman Andrea Finger said at least some of the new units would be available for use by resort visitors — the first time any of the Treehouse Villas have been open to the public in several years. She would not discuss whether the new Treehouse Villas would be rented as lodging, sold as Disney Vacation Club time shares, or both.

 

[paintnolish]

Yes. It was lush, and green, and spooky! Okay, I was around 8 at the time. What did I know? I also thought it was cool that it had a dishwasher!

 

[doconeill]

They ARE being rebuilt. For zoning reasons, they needed to reduce the footprint of the buildings on the ground, so the "pedestal" the treehouse sits on will be made smaller, but stronger. There were blueprints floating around - you can probably find the threads in the News&Rumors section.

As for being part of SSR, I believe that for some reason the land is apportioned to SSR (possibly due to the Disney Institute relationship), but that doesn't mean it will stay that way.

 

[SueM in MN]

They ARE being rebuilt. For zoning reasons, they needed to reduce the footprint of the buildings on the ground, so the "pedestal" the treehouse sits on will be made smaller, but stronger. There were blueprints floating around - you can probably find the threads in the News&Rumors section.

CanadianGuy posted a blueprint picture, a picture of what they used to look like and a link to a proposed drawing. It's on page 1, post #14 of this thread.

from what I read, there were flood plane problems and some of the Treehouses had problems with flooding in the lower level (which was a bedroom in the originals). The new ones will be on a pedestal, which I think I remember had to raise the 'living area' floor to 6 feet above ground level.

 

[doconeill]

CanadianGuy posted a blueprint picture, a picture of what they used to look like and a link to a proposed drawing. It's on page 1, post #14 of this thread.

from what I read, there were flood plane problems and some of the Treehouses had problems with flooding in the lower level (which was a bedroom in the originals). The new ones will be on a pedestal, which I think I remember had to raise the 'living area' floor to 6 feet above ground level.

Ah yes, this thread would be one of those threads There were several others in the N&R forum - but I'm sure CanadianGuy is aware of them

I think I was reading some of the later posts, and got the impression that they didn't know what was happening.

 

[Cee]

I also remember reading that the "old" ones were not handicap accessible.

 

[EDuke98080]

We stayed there maybe 8-10 years ago. iIwas so sad when they stopped renting them to the public. There was one bedroom on the first level and stairs that went up the middle - circular ones. Two bedrooms upstairs and rustic type furnishings. They deck was beautiful. There were peacocks that would come up and sit on the railings and it was quiet and restful. The parking was awesome right outside your door. It was a trip we will all remember fondly as my Dad was still alive and he so enjoyed sitting on the deck in the AM ( to smoke (ugh)) and read his newspaper. He was not always the most exhuberant Disney fan but he loved the atmosphere of the Treehouses. The pool area was quiet and uncrowded and so private. I will hold that stay in my heart forever!

 

[Bell30012]

When I was a kid we stayed in the Treehouse Villas (two times) and the kids all got put in the downstairs room. What was creepy was all the sounds coming from outside. Especially after someone would tell the ineveitable alligator story.