Island Tower at Polynesian Villas & Bungalows

[Mikey15]

I’m enjoying the informed speculation! Even if I will likely never be able to stay in a Penthouse.

Based on both the concept art above, and the latest site photos:

I’m not sure they’d have a lower penthouse balcony be entirely overlooked by an upper penthouse balcony. You don’t spend that level of points to a) only have a recessed balcony, and b) have a different group above you checking out your business. I’m going to hazard a guess at two-level penthouses, but maybe 4 bay + 2 bay instead of 4+4 or 3+3?

They can easily finish with privacy partitions in the balconies with visible half-walls. I just don’t see how they go 6-wide with only 4 sleeping surfaces (when a living room Murphy is clearly visible in the rendering), nor do I see how the recessed upper balcony can be a separate penthouse from the larger lower balcony. The side bays could then be separate TPV studios or 1BR.

Also for fun, here’s a construction shot of the “too small” pool. I don’t think it’s as small as some are worried about:

https://dvcnews.com/wdw-resorts/polynesian/5922-polynesian-island-tower-construction-update-may-2024
Also, hot tub!

 

[tjkraz]

Also for fun, here’s a construction shot of the “too small” pool. I don’t think it’s as small as some are worried about:

No, it's the size of a bathtub! And anyone who says otherwise is just a Disney-loving sycophant!

 

[hockeydad21]

I’m enjoying the informed speculation! Even if I will likely never be able to stay in a Penthouse.

Based on both the concept art above, and the latest site photos:

I’m not sure they’d have a lower penthouse balcony be entirely overlooked by an upper penthouse balcony. You don’t spend that level of points to a) only have a recessed balcony, and b) have a different group above you checking out your business. I’m going to hazard a guess at two-level penthouses, but maybe 4 bay + 2 bay instead of 4+4 or 3+3?

They can easily finish with privacy partitions in the balconies with visible half-walls. I just don’t see how they go 6-wide with only 4 sleeping surfaces (when a living room Murphy is clearly visible in the rendering), nor do I see how the recessed upper balcony can be a separate penthouse from the larger lower balcony. The side bays could then be separate TPV studios or 1BR.

Also for fun, here’s a construction shot of the “too small” pool. I don’t think it’s as small as some are worried about:
View attachment 869009
https://dvcnews.com/wdw-resorts/polynesian/5922-polynesian-island-tower-construction-update-may-2024
Also, hot tub!

Agreed! I think we're most likely looking at the penthouse 2 bedroom villa being 2 stories. Like Mikey said, it doesn't make sense to have a family above you on the top floor looking over the penthouse balcony below. Also, if they were both 1 floor like most have speculated, then how could DVC charge the same amount of points for the penthouse 2 bedroom villa with the significantly smaller balcony?

 

[Tramp200]

Perhaps there’s a connecting door in the second bedroom to a studio which would allow for an optional third bedroom configuration? Thanks for your post it’s great info.

I suppose that would be a three bedroom penthouse lock off?

 

[intamin]

No, it's the size of a bathtub! And anyone who says otherwise is just a Disney-loving sycophant!

View attachment 869010

LOL this actually made me laugh hard. From that perspective it looks a lot more reasonable. Would it have killed them to throw in a tree or some rockwork around it though? :X

 

[MerlinandtheMouse]

Still no updates on the POS or any other relevant documents, Document Wizards?

 

[Cabius]

Still no updates on the POS or any other relevant documents, Document Wizards?

No updates to either the PVB or Multi-Site license on the FL portal since May 29th!

 

[mkatsy]

Still no updates on the POS or any other relevant documents, Document Wizards?

 

[accm]

I’m enjoying the informed speculation! Even if I will likely never be able to stay in a Penthouse.

Based on both the concept art above, and the latest site photos:

I’m not sure they’d have a lower penthouse balcony be entirely overlooked by an upper penthouse balcony. You don’t spend that level of points to a) only have a recessed balcony, and b) have a different group above you checking out your business. I’m going to hazard a guess at two-level penthouses, but maybe 4 bay + 2 bay instead of 4+4 or 3+3?

They can easily finish with privacy partitions in the balconies with visible half-walls. I just don’t see how they go 6-wide with only 4 sleeping surfaces (when a living room Murphy is clearly visible in the rendering), nor do I see how the recessed upper balcony can be a separate penthouse from the larger lower balcony. The side bays could then be separate TPV studios or 1BR.

I posted speculating about these 2 bedroom penthouses a little bit ago, with the same thought about the balcony. The only problem I see with it being 2 stories is that the door for the top one is at the same location as the lower one, so it'd make for either a second large (2 bay) common area, or a 2 bay bedroom? But then where is the second bedroom? Is it just one of the bays beside the center ones? From Disney's description "Great for gatherings: includes 3 full bathrooms, a full kitchen, spacious living and dining areas, a washer and dryer, and an extra-large private deck.", I also wouldn't consider the top balcony to be "extra large", and the bottom one "private" if they were not part of the same unit.

I just spent more time looking at the pictures posted, and noticed something that doesn't line up with the way that middle upper section is arranged. If you look by the dining table, there's obviously a door going out to a balcony (circled in red), but from the construction photos, there's nowhere for that door to be. The main doors obviously line up, but why that discrepancy, when they obviously already know the room layout?

 

[CWTC]

. If you look by the dining table, there's obviously a door going out to a balcony (circled in red), but from the construction photos, there's nowhere for that door to be.

I assumed that door led to one of the bedrooms and the “sky view” you can see through the doorway is the window or sliding door or wall leading out to that specific bedroom’s balcony.

 

[iloveeeyore]

I assumed that door led to one of the bedrooms and the “sky view” you can see through the doorway is the window or sliding door or wall leading out to that specific bedroom’s balcony.

Yes and there's a similar doorway on the opposite wall

 

[accm]

I assumed that door led to one of the bedrooms and the “sky view” you can see through the doorway is the window or sliding door or wall leading out to that specific bedroom’s balcony.

Oh that makes sense, but there’s no door there in the second bedroom picture:

 

[Cabius]

I wonder if the upper-level balcony could still be extended somehow to align with the others?

The concept art of the living area with the big sliding door seems to match up with the large two-bay recessed area. I can't see them cutting that in half or giving each penthouse two half-sized balconies, and that wouldn't match the concept art. It's much more likely in my mind that each one is the main living area and balcony for one of the Penthouses.

But in the construction photos, it looks like the upper-level balcony is only a few feet deep! The concept art shows room for a circular table, some walking space, and planter on the far side. That reflects the distance on the lower level, which looks to be 8-10 feet deep, but the upper balcony is only about half that depth.

It seems crazy to me that they would have one penthouse with a tiny balcony, and one penthouse with no privacy, rather than just extending the upper balcony to be about the same depth.

I'm not any kind of structural engineering, and I can't imagine why they wouldn't just put the whole balcony in at once. But maybe this will just be fixed in the next few months?

 

[Jwaire]

It's still pretty small, but on par with the rest of the DVC pools. I do appreciate the wood look on the concrete is looking better with each coat.

 

[zavandor]

It's a "you've got a friend in me" penthouse villa: become BFF with the family staying above you.

 

[ehh]

I’m enjoying the informed speculation! Even if I will likely never be able to stay in a Penthouse.

Based on both the concept art above, and the latest site photos:

I’m not sure they’d have a lower penthouse balcony be entirely overlooked by an upper penthouse balcony. You don’t spend that level of points to a) only have a recessed balcony, and b) have a different group above you checking out your business. I’m going to hazard a guess at two-level penthouses, but maybe 4 bay + 2 bay instead of 4+4 or 3+3?

They can easily finish with privacy partitions in the balconies with visible half-walls. I just don’t see how they go 6-wide with only 4 sleeping surfaces (when a living room Murphy is clearly visible in the rendering), nor do I see how the recessed upper balcony can be a separate penthouse from the larger lower balcony. The side bays could then be separate TPV studios or 1BR.

Also for fun, here’s a construction shot of the “too small” pool. I don’t think it’s as small as some are worried about:
View attachment 869009
https://dvcnews.com/wdw-resorts/polynesian/5922-polynesian-island-tower-construction-update-may-2024
Also, hot tub!

I like what you're thinking here, but if these were 2-floor rooms I strongly suspect we would have heard about it by now. And I suspect they would have gone for vaulted ceilings with no 2nd floor balcony, but we can see in the artist render that there is clearly a standard height ceiling in the Penthouse living room.

I think the higher floor Penthouse is just gonna have an, uh, additional view to the Theme Park View. Lower floor better sit back from the edge for their privacy.

 

[crvetter]

I’m enjoying the informed speculation! Even if I will likely never be able to stay in a Penthouse.

Based on both the concept art above, and the latest site photos:

I’m not sure they’d have a lower penthouse balcony be entirely overlooked by an upper penthouse balcony. You don’t spend that level of points to a) only have a recessed balcony, and b) have a different group above you checking out your business. I’m going to hazard a guess at two-level penthouses, but maybe 4 bay + 2 bay instead of 4+4 or 3+3?

They can easily finish with privacy partitions in the balconies with visible half-walls. I just don’t see how they go 6-wide with only 4 sleeping surfaces (when a living room Murphy is clearly visible in the rendering), nor do I see how the recessed upper balcony can be a separate penthouse from the larger lower balcony. The side bays could then be separate TPV studios or 1BR.

Also for fun, here’s a construction shot of the “too small” pool. I don’t think it’s as small as some are worried about:
View attachment 869009
https://dvcnews.com/wdw-resorts/polynesian/5922-polynesian-island-tower-construction-update-may-2024
Also, hot tub!

The problem with Poly is the pools are already too small by quite a bit.

Something I had been interested in is what area of pools there are per hypothetical max occupancy of the individual DVC resorts (counting the guests of the Hotel Side if one exists). There had been some statements that Riviera was smaller in the pool areas than other resorts.

View attachment 464845

My hotel room numbers might be off as it was difficult to find and lock down that number. The Approx. Hotel Guests is based on 4 people per each room (so the deluxe and suites are under counted, though 4 per room seemed reasonable). Also for the DVC guest count I used the stated max occupancy for each room to find that. As you can see Riviera is pretty much in line with everywhere else and the two outliers are PVB with significantly undersized pools (though that has been known) and VGF with significantly larger pools (though that also has been known). But all in all Riviera seems pretty in line with the pools so I suspect there isn't much to worry about in regard to the physical size of the water area (however, the deck space is a different question).

Just thought Riviera owners might be interested in where their resort falls. If there are any additional comments or I made an error let me know and I can correct the above chart.

Edit: I left out BCV just because YC/BC is such a different animal with SAB in that it really is in its own league and determining the area of SAB would be a nightmare.

They are adding rooms that add about another 1300 guests in a theoretical maximum. So that means to get the pool size to be in line with Riviera (that was argued to be small, but actually isn't per guest) they would need to add a pool of 600 square meters (about the size of the main pool there already). I'm don't have any idea of scale yet on the pool size, so perhaps they will get close. To maintain the same capacity they need to add 220 square meters.

 

[MerlinandtheMouse]

I like what you're thinking here, but if these were 2-floor rooms I strongly suspect we would have heard about it by now. And I suspect they would have gone for vaulted ceilings with no 2nd floor balcony, but we can see in the artist render that there is clearly a standard height ceiling in the Penthouse living room.

I think the higher floor Penthouse is just gonna have an, uh, additional view to the Theme Park View. Lower floor better sit back from the edge for their privacy.

I’ve thought about this a bit more and although I see your logic here, they’ve been particularly quiet about almost all details of this resort so it wouldn’t be totally out of the norm for them to not release the information if this villa is 2 floors or 1. The description of the penthouse on the WDW website says:

• Great for gatherings: includes 3 full bathrooms, a full kitchen, spacious living and dining areas, a washer and dryer, and an extra-large private deck.

There’s no way that that upper deck could be considered extra large nor the lower one private at that point. And if that is the way they’ve built it, I’d be upset if I got the upper floor balcony… but then also annoyed that I can’t actually privately enjoy the lower balcony if that’s my room.

I think there might just be 2 penthouse suites in total, one preferred and one fireworks view. The upper floor is probably a luxe main bedroom. And maybe lower floor balcony door is shared by the second bedroom and living room space? I could also see the upper floor having both bedrooms share that balcony.

Speculative, alternative options:

• The Penthouses are the 4-bays in the middle and bookended by Deluxe Studios.
• The Penthouses have the grandest bathrooms in all of DVC, with bathrooms taking up the end bays. And also having sliding glass doors?
• The Penthouses aren't at these 6-bay locations at the top of the center tower.
  • Alternatively, could be the 4-bay spaces that are just below but to both sides of the speculated area.
  • If this is the case, then there's two floors of 6-bay space that is unaccounted for...
• The kitchen in the Penthouse gets its own bay, leaving only 1 mystery bay.
• There's also a den area in the Penthouse, similar to the VGF GV, again leaving 1 mystery bay.
• The main bedroom gets ~2 bays in the Penthouse, again leaving 1 mystery bay.

Also taking a look at your speculative options, the last one could look like this: 2-bay living space, 2-bay main bedroom, 1-bay second bedroom and mystery bay could be 3rd bathroom + laundry facility? I think this most fits how I’m imagining it

It’s interesting to think of how many options there could be, I never realized. I really hope they release more details soon, the speculation is fun but at this point…


ETA: Actually, there’s no chance those mystery portals are the penthouses, right? Have we ruled that out? I can’t remember lol

 

[Cabius]

ETA: Actually, there’s no chance those mystery portals are the penthouses, right? Have we ruled that out? I can’t remember lol

I mean, anything is possible, but those are waayyyy too low in the building to be considered penthouses, and the concept art of the living area is basically an exact match for the recessed areas on the top two floors.

 

[MerlinandtheMouse]

I mean, anything is possible, but those are waayyyy too low in the building to be considered penthouses, and the concept art of the living area is basically an exact match for the recessed areas on the top two floors.

True, true. Then I go back to my original thought that there only 2 penthouses. 4 if they added a large privacy divider in the middle of that balcony space but I’m not sure that is going to happen? Feel like they would have already done that with earlier construction