News Kona Cafe at Disney's Polynesian Village Resort closing for refurbishment this summer

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
This really looks great and I struggle to understand how the same company just last year made
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That's the thing with Disney these days: it's not that everything they do is bad, and little if any of it is cheap. It's just the quality is all over the place so you never know what to expect from one project to the next.

I would also put this next to the painted metal and concrete porte cochere with the weird balloon lights at Polynesian as an example of these wild swings. On the positive side, this refurb seems spot on.
 

aladdin2007

Well-Known Member
well I actually still prefer the design prior to Kona lol, but that was the original old school Disney World, it was just so nice to walk in and grab dinner and a milkshake after being the park, no reservation needed. But this looks really well done and a fitting nice update. I just think the lunch menu is unimpressive and horribly limited with nothing to choose from, I hope it gets some changes.
 

disneyC97

Well-Known Member
Ahhh…Coral Isle Cafe!
well I actually still prefer the design prior to Kona lol, but that was the original old school Disney World, it was just so nice to walk in and grab dinner and a milkshake after being the park, no reservation needed. But this looks really well done and a fitting nice update. I just think the lunch menu is unimpressive and horribly limited with nothing to choose from, I hope it gets some changes.
 

Bocabear

Well-Known Member
I kinda feel that way about this refurbishment as well. It looks fine... but if people are saying "It looks fine" as their response, I would say they missed the mark. I like fresh painting and cleaning and maintenance... that's great. I guess we just live in a world now where wall[aper graphics and Marriott style interiors are the pinnacle of placemaking thematic architecture...
 

James Alucobond

Well-Known Member
I kinda feel that way about this refurbishment as well. It looks fine... but if people are saying "It looks fine" as their response, I would say they missed the mark. I like fresh painting and cleaning and maintenance... that's great. I guess we just live in a world now where wall[aper graphics and Marriott style interiors are the pinnacle of placemaking thematic architecture...
I think this is a modernization that successfully excises the 90s while simultaneously maintaining a similar level of theming with no IP intrusion. So, a job well done. This should be standard for regular updates happening throughout the resorts. The guest rooms and core, broad-appeal resort restaurants have always been fairly modern with some thematic elements. There are obviously more heavily themed options like Trader Sam’s, but there has always been a place for experiences to the level of Kona and Captain Cook’s too.
 

aladdin2007

Well-Known Member
I think the contemporary lobby was great too
agree, the lobby and steakhouse were spot on,,,go upstairs however........and nothing has been done it needs a complete overhaul.....go upstairs further to the rooms and epic fail....3 totally different themes and looks for the resort now. just amazes me how they had no vision with that project, one team did bottom level, nothing done with the middle, and entire different team/vision for the rooms?......record scratch..........the lobby etc should have been connected to the room design instead we got cheap youth hostel rooms based on a pixar movie.
 
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Club Cooloholic

Well-Known Member
agree, the lobby and steakhouse were spot on,,,go upstairs however........and nothing has been done it needs a complete overhaul.....go upstairs further to the rooms and epic fail....3 totally different themes and looks for the resort now. just amazes me how they had no vision with that project, one team did bottom level, nothing done with the middle, and entire different team/vision for the rooms?......record scratch..........the lobby etc should have been connected to the room design instead we got cheap youth hostel rooms based on a pixar movie.
I didn't have an issue with them doing the Incredibles rooms, but then I saw the execution and was disappointed. What exactly is the theme of Contemporary anyway? I just spent time looking it up because in my head it was "futuristic " or at least very modern, but it hasn't been that in ages. I love the mural and would never want it removed but was that thing ever "modern" looking? Incredibles could have worked if the rooms had modernist styling from the film throughout and skipped the cheap vinyl cutouts slapped on things that it got. I love Universal but their attempts at movie themed rooms, like Jurrasic Park missed the mark and looked cheap, this reminded me of that.
 

castlecake2.0

Well-Known Member
agree, the lobby and steakhouse were spot on,,,go upstairs however........and nothing has been done it needs a complete overhaul.....go upstairs further to the rooms and epic fail....3 totally different themes and looks for the resort now. just amazes me how they had no vision with that project, one team did bottom level, nothing done with the middle, and entire different team/vision for the rooms?......record scratch..........the lobby etc should have been connected to the room design instead we got cheap youth hostel rooms based on a pixar movie.
The main concourse needs blown up (except for the mural) and redone from scratch. It’s hideous.
 

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