News about Treehouse Villas !! ??

[CanadianGuy]

There are a COUPLE of pictures of the old villas (complete with 70's interior) in the link at the bottom of the post on the previous page.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

There are a COUPLE of pictures of the old villas (complete with 70's interior) in the link at the bottom of the post on the previous page.

Thanks!

 

[jdvm]

Well, hurricane Charlie certainly did a lot of damage to many of the Treehouse Villas and I'd always heard that there were wheelchair access issues that needed to addressed.

John

 

[helenk]

I would love to stay in one. I always wanted to stay in the Treehouse Villas but they were always out of my price range.
Now that my siblings and I are all adults with older children something like this would be perfect.

 

[CanadianGuy]

Well, hurricane Charlie certainly did a lot of damage to many of the Treehouse Villas and I'd always heard that there were wheelchair access issues that needed to addressed.

John

ADA stuff is a minor issue... One of the mods from the disABILITIES forum noted that here previously in a thread. Only a couple of the villas need be ADA compliant. Not all 60. That would be a minor cost issue.

The bigger issue is the compliance with the flood plain and water table issues.

(As noted in the previously linked permit)

Knox

 

[TexasTodds]

I remember when we were planning our trip in 1994 seeing the THV in the Birbaum guide book. I don't know when they stopped renting these out, but when we were thinking about going to WDW with the inlaws and BIL/SIL and their 2 kids in 1998-1999 I think we were considering staying there, but we backed out (oops, found out I was pregant, and due 3 weeks after trip!) and they stayed off-site (What a travesty!)

The original THV had a bedroom downstairs I think? It looks like the new ones will not. Can anyone confirm?

Thanks!

 

[SueM in MN]

ADA stuff is a minor issue... One of the mods from the disABILITIES forum noted that here previously in a thread. Only a couple of the villas need be ADA compliant. Not all 60. That would be a minor cost issue.

The bigger issue is the compliance with the flood plain and water table issues.

(As noted in the previously linked permit)

Knox

That was me.
There is a table in the ADA standards for hotels that says how many rooms need to be accessible, based on the total number of rooms in the resort.
For a hotel of 51 to 75 rooms, 3 would have to be meet minimum accessibilty; things like grab bars, raised seat toilets and minimum door width of at least 32 inches (most regular hotel doorways are 34 to 36 inches wide), . Only 1 would be required to have a roll-in shower. They might have to do a little rearranging to fit in a roll in shower, but the roll in shower bathrooms in the DVC rooms are the same size as the regular bathrooms with showers.

It would be relatively easy to provide access to the raised entry area. They could put an elevator the goes from ground level to the entry level deck or they could wrap a ramp that leads to the deck around the outside of the building. They would only have to do that with a total of 4 rooms (3, plus 1 roll in shower room).

Some of the other accessibility requirements would not change the design - like 3 rooms would need to be supplied with things like strobe light fire alarms and features for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Things like faucets, light switches and door knobs that can be operated with one hand, higher electrical outlets and lower wall switches were not always common when the standards were written, but they are pretty common parts of 'universal design' now.

So, handicapped accessibility would be no problem.

 

[Smooshdog]

I'm excited about this! Thanks for the updates!

 

[DJ Disney Kid]

With only 60 of these available they will be harder to book than dinner in the castle!

 

[CanadianGuy]

Thanks for posting Sue!! I knew you'd know the details.

Because an elevator would significantly increase the 'footprint' on the flood plain, which it appears they are trying raelly hard to decrease, I'd put my money on a Z-ramp entrance for those units!

Knox

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks for posting Sue!! I knew you'd know the details.

Because an elevator would significantly increase the 'footprint' on the flood plain, which it appears they are trying raelly hard to decrease, I'd put my money on a Z-ramp entrance for those units!

Knox

I couldn't tell from the small plans exactly how far off the ground they are. For a ramp, you basically need 1 foot of ramp for each one inch you are going up. By doing a Z or switchback ramp, they can make it steeper (there are guidelines that tell just how steep, how long, how many switchbacks).
If they can't exceed the footprint on the 'regular' units, they might be able to on just the few that would need to be accessible. You could also have a pretty small elevator and still be accessible, or there are other things like lifts that might work.

 

[LilGMom]

Does anyone have photos of the interiors? I would love to show DH....TIA

If you go to YouTube and do a search for 'Disney Treehouse Villas' you can see a bunch of videos of the the interiors.

Very neat info on them redoing them.

 

[suevee]

What was the price to stay at the Treehouses when they were open? Were they on par with a moderate or deluxe?

In 1986 I paid approximately $200 rack rate to stay in the treehouses. There were 8 of us. At that time they had a package similiar to the packages today. I got 2 meals, snack, park tickets, and the tree house for 7 nights for around $4800. I think. It was called the silver package. It wasn't cheaper than buying things separately but just made it easier to plan and prepay. This was our trip of a lifetime with my parents, children, and brother. I may be off a little, but that's what I remember. There were 4 adults and 3 children on the plan. It was more on par with a villa. We had two bedrooms (two queen beds and a king bed) and 2 and 1/2 bath, laundry, full Kitchen, living/dining area with a pull out couch and a balcony. One of the bedrooms was a loft room. My adult brother park ticket and meals were separate as he only stayed for 4 days. There were only two parks open at the time. We had a blast!!!

 

[CanadianGuy]

I couldn't tell from the small plans exactly how far off the ground they are. For a ramp, you basically need 1 foot of ramp for each one inch you are going up. By doing a Z or switchback ramp, they can make it steeper (there are guidelines that tell just how steep, how long, how many switchbacks).
If they can't exceed the footprint on the 'regular' units, they might be able to on just the few that would need to be accessible. You could also have a pretty small elevator and still be accessible, or there are other things like lifts that might work.

Yeah, the beauty of the design of these units.. is that they could make a fairly long ramp over towards the end of the patio/deck area and then switchback again to the entrance of the villa.

They could possibly get away with a small lift unit.. but one last idea -- do the 'stair climber' things count?

Knox

 

[ntsammy5]

They could possibly get away with a small lift unit..

Possibly even with a rocket assist!

 

[cobbler]

Wonder how it will all play out since it is part of Saratoga's "land". If it will be included in the villas for point rental or what.

 

[keishashadow]

Wonder how it will all play out since it is part of Saratoga's "land". If it will be included in the villas for point rental or what.

was thinking the same thing, however; have a feeilng they'll easily be able to fill them up via resort inventory alone.

curious as to wetlands, etc. laws...while i'd assume Disney has enough conservation aread both onsite & in the nature preserve hour south that they can hop-skip & jump around current regs /due trade offs; or whether this would be grandfathered in? as a realtor, have seen the fed hoops difficult to pass muster

 

[CanadianGuy]

The problem has been that the flood plain this area was re-categorized as part of a 100 year plan that was developed by the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

So.. they have to minimize the ground impact in that area.. reducing the footprint on the ground of each of the treehouses will accomplish that goal.

(So reads the permit anyway)

Knox

 

[SueC1216]

What was the price to stay at the Treehouses when they were open? Were they on par with a moderate or deluxe?

I stayed there in November of 1985 with that wonderful stockholder discount of 50%--we paid $80 per night. We had 4 adults and 2 children. We did not do any kind of a package, just the hotel. It was wonderful with the kitchen and laundry. My mom only brought one pair of shorts because she didn't realize it could be warm enough for shorts in November As I recall, it was 85 degrees or higher when we were there.


I don't remember prices from other trips but I do know that was a bargain. They also did not charge for extra adults in the Treehouse Villas. I would love to stay in one again.

 

[Poohbear123]

I would LOVE to stay there, thanks for the Update!