The old Treehouse Villas Photos?

[mitros]

Where were these located? They look neat.

Between OKW and SSR. {on the land side}

 

[SueM in MN]

We have stayed at POFQ our last few stays at WDW and when you take the boat to Downtown Disney you float right by them. Well anyway this last trip we had a very talkative boat driver and he told us that Disney had to stop using them when the Handicap assessable law went into affect and they had a problem refitting them, so they were empty for a long while but recently they started using them to house the students/workers that come from other countries to work for Disney

ctc917

Even though handicapped access gets mentioned by bus and drivers about the Treehouses, that's not why they were closed.

If they had to make any handicapped accessible, it would be a very small number. And, there are a lot of 'loopholes' in the ADA law - for example, there is no requirement to upgrade if it's not 'technically feasible.
There is a formula for the number of units in a hotel/resort that need to be accessible. I think there were between 50 and 75 Treehouses. By the formula, that would mean only 3-4 need to be accessible - and only one would have to be fully accessible with a roll in shower. The others would be required to have tubs with grab bars and a raised seat toilet. The main problem would be getting from ground level to the main level on the second floor, but there are ways to make them accessible without a lot of cost; including things like putting in a lift to go up to the outdoor porch level.
They may also be exempt because of being only 2 stories and each building being a self contained villa. Even in new construction, buildings 2 stories and under are exempt from needing elevators.

One of the big reasons I heard for them closing is the difficulty they had with cleaning. Housekeeping had to travel (and cart equipment/supplies) between all those individual treehouses. That is not a very efficient way to run a resort.

So, there are probably many reasons why they closed, but handicapped accessibility would not have been the reason.

 

[Hopefully]

We stayed in the Treehouses as a family many years ago. We loved it there! As said, there were 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths plus a washer/dryer and full kitchen. There was a metal circular stairway between the first floor bedroom and the living room. I did enjoy the porch, having my coffee in the morning in the trees.
The Master Suite had a king bed and a Jacuzzi tub. The second bedroom upstairs had a queen bed, and I believe the bedroom downstairs had a double bed. The Living Room was very spacious.
We rented a Golf Cart and would make the easy trip over to the restaurant at the Lake Buena Vista Golf course. It was fun to drive the Golf Cart around.
We loved our stay at the Treehouses and were sad that they no longer are available.

 

[magicaldisney]

They are actually using them for college students who are doing internships in WDW. (DS is looking into doing an internship, that's how I know)

 

[labattblue]

Is this cast member(student) housing....

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=28.37811,-81.525367&spn=0.002228,0.003648&t=h&z=18&om=1


PS If you want to see the treehouse villas pool it is directly to the southwest of the position of map I zoomed in on(just the other side of the fairway).

 

[MomtoGKC]

My mom and I were just wondering what happened to the treehouses yesterday! We stayed there one year with my family and a friend I brought along - we were about 13 or 14.

I don't have many memories of it except that my friend and I got really lost trying to get home from MK one night. We got off the wrong bus stop for our treehouse and it was really dark outside. We wandered around the street for a long time and were so scared. We finally went to hotel ave. and went into a Hilton or somehting and asked the guy at the desk to call my parents. (WAY before cell phones!) It turned out my dad was out driving around looking for us and since my mom couldn't get in touch with him she had to wait until he got back to tell him to come get us! We had to wait in the otel in out t-shirts and shorts while a prom was going on!

Now that I'm a mom I know it was much more scary for them than us.

 

[Sea-Donkey]

No one that has stayed there has pictures?

 

[Shorty82]

I've read somewhere that one reason they were closed is because a number of them were heavily damaged in a hurricane and due to enviromental laws regarding wetlands and the like Disney couldn't repair them.

I'd love to see pictures as well. There is another thread around on here talking about he legal tie-ups on updating the area.

Got a link?

 

[CanadianGuy]

Everybody is partly right on this one.

A good friend of mine was closely involved in the Disney Institute and he explained it to me this way.

Part of the problem wasn't in making them handicapped accessible, but rather bringing them up to modern hotel accommodations standards.

While it is true, some of them were damaged in Hurricane Charley.. the much bigger problem is in upgrading them to the standards of modern accommodations and in part making them ADA compliant. It has nothing to do with the costs of the upgrades OR ADA compliancy, but rather everything to do with the land the villas sit on.

The Treehouse Villas are now part of a protected environmental wetland. This means that any significant construction is exceedingly costly and expensive. Water tributaries and groundwater must be protected at all phases of the construction and expensive studies and approval processes from state and federal authorities must be followed.

If Disney were to keep them open for guests, they'd need to make them ADA compliant and make other major upgrades to the structures. The costs of doing that relatively simple construction on protected wetland is incredibly prohibitive. Ironically, tearing them down all together presents similar challenges because of the protected status of the land on which they sit.

Rather than do any of that.. Disney opted to keep them as CM quarters for international students. This mean no expensive upgrades of any kind therefore, no significant construction or associated costs.

This makes a lot of sense to me and jives with most descriptions I've read of the situation.

Knox

 

[disneydance]

This is all great info off to youtube to see videos

 

[MomPOM]

We stayed there and they were soooooo awesome. There were nine of in one and it was just the best time. Right off the golf course, plenty of room, a full kitchen. I thought it was the best. I was so sad when they stopped making them available. We went in the early 90s I think.

 

[cguill]

I spoke to a CM at one of the rides yesterday, she said they are going to rehab these and turn them into a resort for guests, sounds cool ...

 

[Shorty82]

I spoke to a CM at one of the rides yesterday, she said they are going to rehab these and turn them into a resort for guests, sounds cool ...

I seriously doubt that, what with all the enviromental restrictions, ADA accessability laws, and what not. The CM probably heard a rumour and passed it on, that's all. Ride CMs probably aren't going to be told something to do with an old resort officially before the public knows as that has nothing to do with their area. Until Disney releases something officially that is just a rumour, which may come true but also may not, just like the 100s of other rumours that are floating around about Disney at any particular time.

 

[lizanne]

We stayed there in the late '80's.

What I remember is that narrow metal staircase from the first floor to the second (main) floor. Then there was the dirty porch/deck. Worse was how dark and deserted it was at night when we would come back from the parks. What can I say, I'm not your camping kind of gal.

Parking was right in front of the treehouse in a driveway. One morning we went out to our conversion van to go to the parks and it had been broken into. The windows were broken and my DH, assuming no one would be around, left all his camera equipment and wallet with his credit cards in it, in the van. All gone.

It was a memorable trip, but not necessarily good memories.