PVB Tower Charts, Sales Date and more!!!

[mkatsy]

Some nice photos here: https://www.wdwmagic.com/resorts/th...bungalows-construction---december-9,-2024.htm

Sort of brutal visual with the monorail guard right there at the entrance, but a necessity I guess.

Seems to confirm something I have suspected - that there won’t be an actual security booth at the entrance. That will be interesting operationally for a bit, I suspect.

Site is really coming right along in the final days.

They confirmed today during the Poly board meeting that the gate will be unmanned. You will have to do mobile check in on your phone and then your phone will open the gate. You will always have the option of checking in at the GCH

 

[GADisneyDad14]

They confirmed today during the Poly board meeting that the gate will be unmanned. You will have to do mobile check in on your phone and then your phone will open the gate. You will always have the option of checking in at the GCH

Oh my. Disney IT, mobile check in, a line of cars building behind you…what could possibly go wrong?!?

 

[mkatsy]

Oh my. Disney IT, mobile check in, a line of cars building behind you…what could possibly go wrong?!?

I can see it now … some poor soul hanging their head out the window yelling “BACK UP” at the line of traffic pinning them at the uncooperative gate

 

[jcolvin5]

They confirmed today during the Poly board meeting that the gate will be unmanned. You will have to do mobile check in on your phone and then your phone will open the gate. You will always have the option of checking in at the GCH

This has terrible idea written all over it.

 

[mkatsy]

This has terrible idea written all over it.

They’re going to end up just leaving the gate in the open position and it will become a free for all.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Me making a run for Wailulu on opening day…

 

[hockeydad21]

They’re going to end up just leaving the gate in the open position and it will become a free for all.

PVB owners will riot if they do this.

 

[disneylandtour]

There are cash rooms there--for now--and I'm guessing there's a percentage of them who've never done mobile checkin. This will be a short-lived experiment.

 

[RichVIII]

And sadly I could see my folks at the gate, fumbling with their phone trying to find the app, etc.

 

[Sandisw]

It came up earlier in the thread about blocking for mobile order. Today, around lunch time, they were restricting Gaspirillas to GF guests only.

Tonight, around 8 pm, that wasn’t the case. So, they do have the ability to turn on and off so my guess is that is how they will keep the new bar and grill for Poly guests only.

 

[ehh]

Oh my. Disney IT, mobile check in, a line of cars building behind you…what could possibly go wrong?!?

Having driven by it a bunch the last few weeks (it really sprung up!), the amount of driveway between Floridian Way and that gate is just 2-4 car lengths. Potential for lots of backups into traffic...

 

[hockeydad21]

And sadly I could see my folks at the gate, fumbling with their phone trying to find the app, etc.

100% will be a problem with older guests and new guests.

 

[Mikey15]

They now have a sign at the Poly exit gate (when you turn left after the port-cochere) saying
“Island Tower ->”

So I know they’re fully prepared to check in people at GCH and then send them over. But having waited at Lightning Lane entry behind people who wait until they’re all the way up to the tap points and then pull out their phone to start finding their card to tap… yeah this is not going to go great. Hopefully GCH gives everyone who checks in there a physical tap card.

 

[mkatsy]

On our way to Island Tower guided tour no photos, they’re making us bag our phones

 

[Phatscott25]

On our way to Island Tower guided tour no photos they’re making us bag our phones

That seems odd considering it opens in 5 days. You'd think they'd want people taking photos, posting pics, adding excitement to it, etc.

 

[hockeydad21]

On our way to Island Tower guided tour no photos they’re making us bag our phones

That’s awesome even if you can’t take photos! Enjoy!

 

[BrianLo]

So I just toured the island tower!

The building and facilities are ready, there’s just a bit of outdoor work remaining. Landscaping particularly facing the monorail side and then they are putting in the remaining pathway work under the tree like exit structure on the lagoon side.

It’s very, very nice. Still on the beige end of things, but there is a lot of aqua marine notes woven throughout. The lobby also has giant green plant cylindrical structures and the paddles for lack of a better term overhead do have some colour splashed into the characters.

Artwork is beautiful and understated; less Disney characters smattered around. Maybe they are hidden but it doesn’t jump out to me. The only real prominence is Moana elements that you’ll notice mostly on the feature wall when you approach that all the characters (sans Moana) are etched into it. Only the giant crab is really evident from the main level.

Really nice finishing. Everything is textured. Tiles in the lobby are pretty. There’s four conceptual artwork of Poly, including the classic original tower design on the second level. Pool deck is the most phoned in feature; whereas everything outside of the pool deck is textured or some of the pathway is styled after lava pocketed rock.

The water feature in the restaraunt is an infinity feature. So constantly flowing over. The restaurant is going to be super popular.

The pocket gardens are really, really nice and probably will have to stay limited to the Island Tower guests only until the end of time. I think people who don’t love the tower will like the pocket gardens. They feel the most original Poly with a lot of indoor plants and more colour. They’ve made a big deal of the views and begrudgingly they are amazing views. A lot of the less desirable infrastructure like the transit authority, Tron or roadways etc happens to be fortuitously blocked out by the barrier island and it’s basically just the castle well aligned. I mean there’s probably a reason the Wedding pavilion is where it is.

Still don’t love the points chart and I need to dig into the final view categories. We saw a Duo on the fifth floor that looks towards the bungalows and I’m really unsure how they are categorizing it, the cast members were not sure. If it was any other category it would be a preferred, but I’m not sure if they’ve sneakily shifted that one to premium. Lentesta from touring plans though has access to more data and they seem to have restrained themselves far more than my fears were.

I’m not opposed to a small resale contract per se when pricing comes back down to earth. There are more standard rooms than I figured. But also because these are going to be great sleep around points with low dues.

 

[emchen]

Most people posting in this thread probably already know this, but in case some new folks are reading along:

Inventory that is declared "belongs to" the collective DVC owners. In principle, there should be a balance between the inventory "declared to DVC" and the points that have been or shortly will be sold by Disney. If points are not yet sold, but the inventory backing those points has already been declared, that's equivalent to Disney giving away something it owns and hasn't sold yet. In practice, there is usually a little more inventory declared than points sold, but only enough to support the sales of points for the next "little while"--on the order of months.

What's more, at the Poly, you are not buying "at the Tower". You are buying at the overall resort. Your points will be deeded to a particular, Unit, and that Unit will probably be in the Tower, but that's just for accounting purposes, it doesn't give you any special privileges in the long run for booking the tower.

Anyone considering buying Poly points should understand this--owning points at the resort gives preference only to the resort as a whole, not to any particular room type, the tower vs. the longhouses, etc. The only way to guarantee that you'll be staying at the tower (vs. the longhouses) is to buy a Favorite Week out of Tower inventory.

I’m waiting for more declared inventory in order to buy a FW. I’ve been checking in w my guide monthly.

Is that too often? Based on historical trends from RIV and VDH, seems it can be months (5+) before the second declaration.

BTW, my guide mentioned in his reply email that base price will go up by $10 pp on 02/11/2025.

 

[mkatsy]

That seems odd considering it opens in 5 days. You'd think they'd want people taking photos, posting pics, adding excitement to it, etc.

Just finished … I can understand it from a logistics standpoint. It’s the middle of the day, the bulk of this crowd is moving as slow as molasses. Let’em take photos and . The smell in the lobby is Hibiscus, Guava & Passionfruit. The elevator requires a magic band (or key card) to operate. Overall I think it’s stunning, but the wind whipping off of bay lake makes some of those balconies intolerable. I wonder how long before the wood balconies get plexiglass behind them. At one point during the tour a balcony slider was open, and the wind slammed the main door to the room like a petulant teenager. It scared the bejesus out of the entire room. The main door needs one of those arms up top so it closes slowly and can’t slam. Also, there is no reserved seating at the pool. The specialty seating nooks are open use. We saw two of the viewing rooms. Originally I had thought that the one that faces the road would be useless, but it is really well done, and has lots of plants. The monorail does a good job of blocking out the road and I can see myself relaxing in there because it is a restricted space. Only tower guests can access it.

 

[aka Charles]

The elevator requires a magic band (or key card) to operate.

Thank goodness !!!!!!!
.