Disney Vacation Development has filed new permits in the state of Florida that bring us a little more insight into the new Disney Vacation Club tower coming to Disney’s Polyneisan Village Resort. Following the success of the new villas coming to The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, DVC announced the new tower is projected to open in 2024. According to the press release, the new villas will complement the existing resort. It’s unclear if this means it will be part of the existing association or not. The association has yet to be specified by Disney.
At first look, we notice there is no new monorail station. This was expected since the tower is situated within walking distance of the current Polynesian Resort monorail station inside the Great Ceremonial House as well as the monorail station located at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort.
Paul and I had a chance to explore this area last week. We noticed it was a much bigger space than initially meets the eye. The new build has a great opportunity to be fairly wide (and of course, tall). However, it will only have so much depth as the monorail track comes very close on the front side. You can see in the photo above that the monorail may very well be right outside some members’ balconies. This means parking lot view rooms will also be monorail view rooms. On the other side of the tower, the Seven Seas Lagoon, Grand Floridan, Contemporary, and even Magic Kingdom will offer great views for guests.
The new building will be located on the far end of the resort, closest to Grand Floridan. It will be an easy walk to both the Polynesian main lobby and to Grand Floridan’s resort. It is also very close to the Wedding Pavilion and Grand Floridian Spa. The tower will be furthest from the existing DVC villa longhouses of Moorea, Tokelau, and Pago Pago. Also, it’s further from the Transportation and Ticket Center than the current villas, yet still walkable. There will definitely be a new pool coming to the Polynesian. This will take the place of what is currently a grassy area. There will also be some expanded parking to what is already in place.
I know this new tower will change the landscape of the Polyneisan and for some, it’s not a welcome change. Although, many (including myself) are excited. Based on past new builds and remodels, Disney has shown us some beautiful new DVC accommodations that make many members excited to own.
Stay tuned to DVC Fan and our DVC Fan Facebook Group for more information as it becomes available!
With the depth being so shallow, I’m wondering if DVD would make parts of the building similar to those at Kidani, only have rooms on the money (lake/MK) side. This would allow the money sided rooms to be deeper but narrower which would allow more rooms with the higher cost rooms.
Seeing the drawing is even more unfortunate than when the announcement occurred. This space was a perfect transition in themes between resorts. Instead Disney is jamming in a building with result being that the properties and even the parking lots touch. This was just a cheap move by Disney with all infrastructure already in place and gave them the opportunity to re-use the existing design for Reflections while trying to convince everyone that it ties to the existing Polynesian. In hindsight rather than converting the Poly buildings to DVC nearest the Ticket & Transportation Center, they should have just torn them down and built this tower over on that side. Having nothing other than studios in those buildings was a mistake to begin with.