flyerjab
Well-Known Member
Amen.
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PHOTOS - Disney reveals new lobby design and Trader Sam's lounge for the Polynesian
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
Amen.
Kman101
Well-Known Member
I don't think it's "disdain" though (I should clarify ... at least it's not disdain on my part ... lol). It's more like they've set high expectations and are honestly failing to deliver a lot of the time. Calling them out and holding them to the standard they used to set isn't hating Disney or WDW, IMHO
And what do people expect, concept art is going to be discussed and picked apart, especially when there's not much to discuss with WDW at the moment. And without seeing the "full story", what else are people supposed to go on? If they showed an amazing water feature that would replace the lobby feature, I don't think the complaining would be as loud. And I don't have that nostalgic attachement to the resort.
However, it IS clear they do have some faults. The company APPEARS to frequently cut corners, leave showbuildings empty, take away entertainment .... how is that not supposed to matter to the guests who take their time to discuss WDW. I do it because I care, not because I hate them. Does it "ruin" my time there? Absolutely not but it's not wrong to expect them to actually uphold certain standards.
Are certain things complained about and dissed for probably little reason? Oh yes ...
And what do people expect, concept art is going to be discussed and picked apart, especially when there's not much to discuss with WDW at the moment. And without seeing the "full story", what else are people supposed to go on? If they showed an amazing water feature that would replace the lobby feature, I don't think the complaining would be as loud. And I don't have that nostalgic attachement to the resort.
However, it IS clear they do have some faults. The company APPEARS to frequently cut corners, leave showbuildings empty, take away entertainment .... how is that not supposed to matter to the guests who take their time to discuss WDW. I do it because I care, not because I hate them. Does it "ruin" my time there? Absolutely not but it's not wrong to expect them to actually uphold certain standards.
Are certain things complained about and dissed for probably little reason? Oh yes ...
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BoarderPhreak
Well-Known Member
What an outrage! Boycott!
xdan0920
Think for yourselfer
I believe you that it ABSOLUTELY had to come out. Why is it that they can't put it back in?
Horizons1
Well-Known Member
So what are you getting from Disney to tease us with info that you can't share?
tikiman
Well-Known Member
I sent you a private message. I don’t want to fuel any more arguments in here.
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
You're assuming that it's not a matter of "didn't"?
It's not as if these two hotels aren't separated by 40-odd years of development in our understanding of what it takes to make an indoor space with cycling, non-chlorinated water works.
crispy
Well-Known Member
The original Gaylord Opryland hotel in Nashville was built in 1977 just a few short years after The Polynesian so they are actually contemporaries (pun totally intended) so I'm not getting your point. I haven't been to the Gaylord resort in Orlando, but I live near the one in Nashville and visit fairly often and have also stayed at the Gaylord Texan. The Nashville hotel even has a river running through it with a boat ride. If anything, the fact that a 37 year old hotel can continue to have jaw-dropping water features really isn't a good argument in Disney's favor.
(For full disclosure, I am not even a huge fan of The Polynesian, but I am baffled that the party line seems to be that the waterfall must be removed. Other hotels have large water features and work through whatever issues arise so I'm not sure why Disney can't.)
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
I would also like to mention that in May of 2010, Nashville and the surrounding areas were hit by a major flood that wreaked widespread damage in various places (we used to live there prior to 2010, our house was among the numerous that were ruined and the financial inability to repair the damage prompted us to sell and move down to a new home in Florida). I mention this flood because Opryland Hotel received an absolutely staggering and crippling amount of damage. The entire place was a total mess and caused extensive damage to the lower levels, as much as 12 feet of water to the lower levels estimated and more than $220 million in damages. Areas that got wrecked were the atrium where all the lovely rock/plant/water scenery is held as well as parts of the lobby, and lower convention areas and hotel rooms. Not to mention all of the underlying electrical and mechanical aspects were savaged as well. You can google pictures of the place taken from when the flood hit it, it's a rather disturbing picture seeing such lovely scenery filled with standing water engulfing the place. It was muddy polluted water from the nearby river as well. It caused staggering damage and the standing water would naturally have caused tremendous mold as well. They had to work quick and over the course of three days apparently pumped out over 70 million gallons of water. Still the damage was already done.
Despite all the damage (and likely absurd mold everywhere), they gritted their teeth and took the entire hotel down for an extensive refurbishment and built it back the way it was. Took some time and it remained closed until November, but they didn't cheap out and half- anything (the hotel generally caters to an upscale clientele who expect and demand quality). The hotel still has the same gorgeous decor, rockwork, plants and water features as it did before. No doubt insurance helped to alleviate some of that work, but they still had to keep the hotel closed for a lengthy period of time while work was being done (eating into profits). They probably could have just ripped out all that pretty scenery to save a lot of time and money needed for refurbishment (and some guests would probably still stay there if they did), but they chose not to and instead did it right.
Whatever problems the Polynesian's fountain had, I feel completely comfortable in saying that I guarantee they fall absolutely and absurdly short of the ones Opryland Hotel suffered from (and bounced back from). The required repairs and budget for the Poly fountain couldn't even have come close to touching just one millionth (that's 1/1000000) of the cost and repairs that the Gaylord needed to make it even suitable for public use again...
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crispy
Well-Known Member
Excellent point! I am so sorry your own home was so destroyed by the flood. We were actually driving home from WDW the day of the flood and were completely clueless that it was even happening until a friend called me and told us to stay put. We ended up staying in a hotel in Ringgold, GA (which ironically was destroyed in a tornado a couple of years later) watching the news and worrying. Fortunately, we escaped any major damage.
They fact that they chose to rebuild after such a catastrophic event makes Disney's "inability" to add a waterfall back to the Polynesian pretty laughable.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
Thanks! It was a hard couple of months (probably the hardest living conditions and work i've ever been through), but we got out alright in the end. We had to grin and bear the next few months while our house was for sale (at that point the housing bubble had already burst, and it was really only the lot that was worth anything to anyone due to the damage). FEMA aid was a welcome benefit during this time. In the end we were able to sell and found some nice deals down in Naples Florida. We're in a much better condition (we were even able to pay off all our debts) than we have been in a great many years now. Where the flood did or didn't hit depended on where you were specifically. There are a lot of hills and valleys in the area, and we unfortunately lived in a valley (which can potentially be good for avoiding tornado damage but definitely a bad time for floods). Sorry, didn't want to make this about my own flood problems. I just lived in Nashville at the time and have some basic firsthand knowledge about what went down in the area (literally lots of rain).
And anyone who thinks i'm just overhyping the damage Opryland Hotel sustained again should google some pictures. It was devastating. They somehow managed to clean it all up in about 6 months, but it was certainly a staggeringly big and expensive undertaking (and in spite of any insurance money attained, they no doubt lost extraordinary profits while unable to take guests, hold conventions and the like).
I'm not trying to discredit tikiman himself. But it is a very plausible scenario that his sources are either not being completely upfront about their excuses for doing this to the Polynesian, or are themselves being fed BS from their own higher ups. Or perhaps they just suck at their job and can't think of a decent solution to the problem. I don't know the reason, it could be any number of things (though cheapness is a very logical one that makes sense given the general trends of TDO and Iger). But I do know that there are tons of other hotels that have their own similar water/plant/rock features and manage to still maintain them well enough (and with the Gaylord, they've been faced with infinitely worse and more expensive problems than the Polynesian but still bounced back without compromising quality for the customer).
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flynnibus
Premium Member
How much you trust someone doesn't counter the lack of sense in some of the explanations. Things just don't add up when someone says "It was better to replace the car than to replace the flat tire". They may very well believe it.. or there may very well be other aspects not conveyed in the conversation (like.. I didn't tell you the car's engine was blown). But the items shared so far just don't make sense.
"the water supply from the lagoon caused all these problems.." - so why not just change the water supply?
The "reasons" just don't justify the choices on their merit alone.
tikiman
Well-Known Member
You are correct in one thing. There is some information I am not sharing (and won't) so feel free to fill in the blanks with what ever assumptions you would like. I was just trying to share what facts I know.
Would the remaining facts help make things more clear? I’m sure it would but I have no interest in sharing anything more since you think the information is garbage. I am patiently waiting for your facts that let us all know the reason behind why they removed it. The floor is yours. You win. I won’t post any more of my lies that I seem to be making up or my close friends are fooling me into believing.
Kman101
Well-Known Member
And who says what Disney does has to make sense? They do what they want. Period. They probably don't even know truth from lies when it comes to certain things.
Not sure why tikiman is being attacked over simply stating what he was told. Whether people believe it or not is on them. And if someone knows better, then by all means, post away.
Not sure why tikiman is being attacked over simply stating what he was told. Whether people believe it or not is on them. And if someone knows better, then by all means, post away.
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
That you're willing to share what information you can is awesome, but to let on that you know something that you won't tell us comes across as patronizing.
I completely respect your decision not to share with us information shared with you in confidence, but in the future it would probably be best not to tell us this.
asianway
Well-Known Member
If one was inclined to believe in conspiracies one could think that whatever "it" is was leaked out to diffuse the backlash give tikiman is the online leader of Poly fans.
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
Here are some pictures I pulled from the internet. This is one of the largest hotels (#29, I think) in the world which I hope gives people an idea of how extensive the damage was. None of the water in the third picture is supposed to be there.
thats insane damage!
unbelievable water levels in the third and fourth pictures!