This update is as of July 11, 2014. Visit our Polynesian Construction Updates category page for the latest information.
More changes are taking place at Disneys Polynesian Village Resort (including the full adoption of this name rather than Disney’s Polynesian Resort). Here’s the rundown on what’s changed since our last update. Continue reading Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort Construction Update: July 11, 2014
On July 5, Disney’s Hollywood Studios introduced “Frozen Summer Fun”, a summer celebration that will run daily in the park through September 1, 2014. The celebration includes several Frozen-themed events, Frozen merchandise, special treats and a themed fireworks show that wraps up each day’s festivities. Here are all the things you need to know about Frozen Summer Fun to make your time at Hollywood Studios the best it can be.
Continue reading Frozen Summer Fun at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Celebrating a holiday at Walt Disney World can be so much fun, but the parks offer so many things to do and see that you don’t want to miss out on anything. The Fourth of July is no exception and this year the parks have a great lineup of entertainment to celebrate Independence Day. Here’s everything you need to know about the Fourth festivities so you don’t miss a thing.
At WDWTools we know you want to be up to date on the things that will affect your upcoming trips. We also know you like to get a look at the parks even when you can’t be here. So we’re starting a series of posts called “In the Parks” where we’ll take you around the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Downtown Disney, and even the water parks to keep you informed. Yesterday I took a walk around the Magic Kingdom and I’m excited to share my photos and information with all of you.
Starbucks has opened two new locations at Downtown Disney and, while more Starbucks locations on property isn’t necessarily news, these two are a bit different from those already in the parks at Magic Kingdom and Epcot.
Continue reading Downtown Disney Starbucks: What You Want to Know
This update is as of June 12, 2014. Visit our Polynesian Construction Updates category page for the latest information.
Work continues at Disney’s Polynesian Resort (soon to be Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort) with lots happening in the lobby this week, new concept art appearing in the hotel, and a look at what’s going on at the longhouses including Tokelau and Rapa Nui.
Continue reading Disney’s Polynesian Resort Construction Update: June 12, 2014
Not too many substantive changes this week, but here we go.
The cabanas are coming along quickly, and every time I go back I have to make the shot wider to get all of the action.
More walls are sprouting up around the central water feature. It seems Disney is trying to acclimate people to the idea that the feature will soon be entirely obscured gradually.
The view from the upper level is now entirely walled off.
And there is now one wall on the lower level, obstructing the view from the rear entrance.
At the moment, this is the only wall blocking the water feature on the lobby level. You can still see it from the other three sides.
And, as you probably noticed, lighting fixtures have been installed on the walls.
Wall at former Captain Cook’s site decoratedThe wall that obstructs the former Moana Mickey Arcade and Captain Cook’s has been decorated with a red pattern, a Lilo and Stitch cutout, and images of Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto, announced earlier this month. Presumably, this will be the site of the new lounge.
The walkway in front of the former Neverland Club, now Club Disney, has been reopened and the new signage has been uncovered. The Neverland Club, now Club Disney, is expected to reopen in mid-June. A walkway adjacent has been closed and is being repaved.
Images not otherwise categorized, most of which do not represent significant change.
Just a slight change this week as far as the map is concerned: the opening of the Club Disney walkway and closure of its adjacent walkway.
I’ve decided to make the Poly construction updates a weekly series. Since we established a baseline with our first construction update, we’ll only have to cover the deltas in these weekly installments, which should make it slightly less onerous. This article reflects status as of May 13 unless otherwise noted, although some photos were taken on May 7 or earlier.
This is also the first update since Disney’s new concept renderings for the Poly were released. These renderings confirmed the widespread rumors that the lobby’s central water feature would be removed.
The Cabanas are taking shape quickly. Included are two panoramas of the cabanas, one from May 7, and one from May 13. The previous article also includes a panoramic image of the cabanas.
Additional cabanas on the far right have been framed out.
Here’s a panorama taken from a different angle. It has a less direct view inside the cabanas, but shows more of the construction site.
You see that the crane is hard at work on something behind that tarp. Here’s the best image I could get behind the tarp.
The Great Ceremonial House has seen a few changes, though they’re mostly tucked away. There is one highly-visible bombshell that we’ll address after the mundane stuff.
These things are not that surprising, as the services in the rear of the GCH have already been closed, and the partial closure of the entry way doesn’t have a major impact on service.
But then, on May 8, two walls were placed on the upper floor of the lobby.
This is a pretty big deal, and Disney undoubtedly left some view of the water feature open so that people could have time to adjust to the concept of not seeing it anymore. Any way you slice it, the water feature’s days are numbered, and it will soon be removed — hence the two walls that are already up.
A third longhouse has been vacated and tarped for transformation into a DVC property.
The Neverland Club Walkway is now closed off and the sign has been covered with a blanket.
Here’s an updated map.
This week has been huge for Walt Disney World news, with both the 7DMT dedication ceremony and the summer press event occurring on May 2.
First, the 7DMT dedication ceremony. The event itself was a brief, generic oration for which Snow White and all of her Seven Dwarfs were on hand. The noteworthy piece of news shared immediately after this event was the official opening date for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: May 28, 2014. A “soft open”, or early unofficial opening, may occur at any time between now and that time, but no reports of this have been heard thus far.
FastPasses are available on Disney’s site now for dates from May 28 forward.
A night-time hard-ticket event at Disney’s Animal Kingdom has been announced. Entitled Harambe Nights, the event will occur most Saturday evenings throughout the summer and will be hosted by a celebrity narrator. The show begins at 7:30pm. The first night, June 7, has already sold out.
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After the show concludes, Harambe Nights Street Party will begin, featuring a free buffet, character greets, exclusive merchandise, and a “special finale”.
Let’s take a breather here with some tamer news from earlier in the week. Disney announced free dining dates for Disney Visa cardholders. Dates for The Rest of Ustm will be announced soon and will probably overlap significantly with these dates. Reservations for free dining for Disney Visa cardholders began being accepted on May 2.
This discount is not available for rooms booked at Port Orleans Riverside, Port Orleans French Quarter, All-Star Movies, Fort Wilderness Campsites, Art of Animation Little Mermaid Rooms, Grand Floridian Villas, or any 3-bedroom villa.
We’ve discussed elsewhere on this blog the extensive renovations ongoing at Disney’s Polynesian Resort, and now more detail has been revealed about what we can expect when refurbishment completes in 2015.
As rumored, Disney will change the Polynesian’s formal name to Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, reverting to the name used when the resort originally opened in 1971.
Rumors that the much-adored lobby would be converted to a more open environment have also been validated, with the release of this rendering:
The massive water feature that currently occupies the lobby and stretches into the second story of the Great Ceremonial House will be removed entirely and replaced with a modest circular fountain. Bagged bulbs and orbs will now hang from the ceiling, filling the gap left in the second floor by the water feature’s removal. This is one of the most controversial revisions in a long while. It also looks like the wooden floors will be replaced with marble and the seating areas completely retooled.
The Poly will also receive a new lounge, Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto, inspired by Trader Sam of the Jungle Cruise and the canonical Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar at Disneyland Hotel.
Although light on details, a new night-time show, Rivers of Light, was announced for Disney’s Animal Kingdom, utilizing water screens and lasers similar to those seen in Fantasmic! to project colorful images of animals into the corridor between Discovery Island and Expedition Everest. Between this and Harambe Nights, Disney is working to turn Animal Kingdom into an attractive all-day experience apart from and ahead of The World of Pandora (colloquially known as “Avatarland”). At present, the park almost always closes around sunset and has a reputation as a “half-day park”.
Festival of the Lion King, a stage show production at Animal Kingdom and one of the park’s main headliners, will reopen in June at a new theater in the Africa section of the park. The show’s previous theater was located in Camp Minnie-Mickey, which was closed to be remade into The World of Pandora.
Downtown Disney is undergoing renovation now to become Disney Springs by 2016. The entire area is being completely rethemed into its polar opposite, abandoning the urban theme of a vibrant downtown in favor of a sleepy, cozy feel that “draws inspiration from Florida’s waterfront towns and natural beauty” and splits the area into four distinct “neighborhoods”. Although much of the Disney Springs concept was revealed in March 2013, several new renders of Disney Springs were released this week.
The images clearly communicate the overgrown feel that Disney is pursuing. One could not ask for a more stark transformation.
That about covers the major new developments from this busy week. Keep checking in for more news roundups and construction updates as things develop around Walt Disney World.
This post is from April. Check out the latest version here: https://www.wdwtools.com/blog/polynesian-village-resort-construction-update-october-27-2014
Correction, Apr. 28, 2014: The Nanea Volcano Pool is not closed for refurbishment. This article originally contained pictures of the closed pool under the assumption it was closed for refurbishment. The closure we saw was simply a brief maintenance closure. The refurbishment is not due until later in the summer.
Aloha! Many vacationers with reservations at the Polynesian have been unsettled by recent news of aggressive construction. This is an overview of the construction ongoing at the resort as of this week, April 21-25, 2014.
We start at the walkway from the TTC to the Poly. Almost the entire thing is tarped.
What’s behind all this tarp? Take a look, as seen from the TTC->Poly monorail.
As you can probably tell, this section of the Poly is pretty noisy right now between the big machinery and the renovation of Tahiti.
Someone might suggest that you get a room on the other side of the resort to avoid that noise. We’ll get to that later.
Fortunately, the resort’s interior walkways are minimally impacted:
One of the big controversies in this renovation is the refurbishment of the Great Ceremonial House, home to major dining attractions like ‘Ohana and an unassuming but widely-loved water feature in the center of the lobby. At the moment, the majority of the GCH remains intact:
Construction is beginning to encroach from the rear of the GCH, however. Moana Mickey’s Arcade is closed.
Worse, Captain Cook’s, the Polynesian’s 24-hour counter service restaurant, has been shuttered and relocated into a cast break area underneath the staircase:
The rest of the GCH remains intact for now.
Earlier we discussed the possibility of locating a room on the opposite side of the resort to avoid construction noise. That’d be a neat idea, except…
the legendary beach on Seven Seas Lagoon is also experiencing heavy construction. Most of it is being consumed by new DVC villas, some of which even jut into the water. There is not much room left for viewing fireworks. It seems inevitable that this beach will be hard to access unless you’re staying in the DVC properties being raised up.
Not pictured here is construction on the parking lot or construction on the Neverland Club. The parking lot construction is mostly a big tarp around the lot and the Neverland Club was closed but did not have externally visible signs of construction when I swung by.
Here’s a map showing current closures and construction areas. You’ll have to click to blow it up and see the detail.
Lots of people have been unhappy about the construction and asking to be moved to another deluxe resort after check-in. From what I’ve heard, most people have had success with this approach. Disney does not seem to be accommodating requests to move prior to check-in, so just plan to ask after you’ve checked in and gone to your room for a few short minutes.
… Mahalo everyone.
