PHOTOS - Disney reveals new lobby design and Trader Sam's lounge for the Polynesian

[ford91exploder]

The fanbois are crawling out of the woodwork to defend Disney's latest depredation of it's legacy.

I guess it's a insult to Disney to compare them unfavorably to a national chain of hotels who have managed to maintain water large water features while still maintaining a per night rate which is about 15% of The Poly's room rate.

Disney did it It's MAGICal no matter what the product is... NOT!

 

[ford91exploder]

My goodness... the cries of doomsday over this... You go to a hotel, sleep, so you can enjoy the theme parks... Everyone step back, breathe... Life will be okay.

For a Hotel which charges 1K per night during peak season for a STANDARD room and for which lobby dwelling was a PRIME attraction of said HOTEL, Yes the degradation of the Lobby experience is a BIG DEAL, Because the rest of the Poly is basically at the level of a Hilton Garden Inn and without the one time awesomeness of the lobby the Hotel is no longer WORTH that 1K figure. And no a 'Trader Sams' is not a worthwhile trade for the ambience.

 

[freediverdude]

For a Hotel which charges 1K per night during peak season for a STANDARD room and for which lobby dwelling was a PRIME attraction of said HOTEL, Yes the degradation of the Lobby experience is a BIG DEAL, Because the rest of the Poly is basically at the level of a Hilton Garden Inn and without the one time awesomeness of the lobby the Hotel is no longer WORTH that 1K figure. And no a 'Trader Sams' is not a worthwhile trade for the ambience.

And if they were going to re-do the lobby, they really needed to basically tear down the Great Ceremonial House, and re-build as something bigger and grander, not insert more shops and reduce the lobby to a pretty generic slightly tropical looking lobby. Like you said, this place commands 1K+ per night at times, and is on the monorail to the most visited theme park in the entire world. The other two resorts on said monorail both have big impressive themed atriums/lobbies, befitting their place as among Disney's best and (try to) justify the absurd pricing.

This lobby decision along with the decision to build those big DVC bungalows blocking the view of a lot of the hotel rooms, makes me wonder what they are thinking over there.

 

[ford91exploder]

And if they were going to re-do the lobby, they really needed to basically tear down the Great Ceremonial House, and re-build as something bigger and grander, not insert more shops and reduce the lobby to a pretty generic slightly tropical looking lobby. Like you said, this place commands 1K+ per night at times, and is on the monorail to the most visited theme park in the entire world. The other two resorts on said monorail both have big impressive themed atriums/lobbies, befitting their place as among Disney's best and (try to) justify the absurd pricing.

This lobby decision along with the decision to build those big DVC bungalows blocking the view of a lot of the hotel rooms, makes me wonder what they are thinking over there.

I think the issue is TDO is NOT THINKING - This project got assigned to someone who heard 'Minimize Maintenance Cost' and did it without regard to the fact that this is a Monorail resort which commands insane prices simply BECAUSE of it's location and ambience.

There is reducing maintenance cost through intelligent design (using COTS systems for which components are commodity items etc, Think Filters/Pumps for water feature) and simply slashing things to reduce maintenance cost by removing amenities.

 

[asianway]

The fanbois are crawling out of the woodwork to defend Disney's latest depredation of it's legacy.

I guess it's a insult to Disney to compare them unfavorably to a national chain of hotels who have managed to maintain water large water features while still maintaining a per night rate which is about 15% of The Poly's room rate.

Disney did it It's MAGICal no matter what the product is... NOT!

Brand advocates are working this thread hard. Merch carts will be in there by christmas 2015, and then maybe one day they can put a gift shop on the site of the old fountain with a BA set of Mickey ears reaching to the skylight

 

[freediverdude]

OMG you just made me throw up in my mouth a little, lol.

 

[Sage of Time]

What Hampton Inn has a water feature in the lobby? Is it over by the waffle maker? LOL

 

[ford91exploder]

What Hampton Inn has a water feature in the lobby? Is it over by the waffle maker? LOL

The one in Milpitas CA certainly does as do a few others that I've been to, It's more of a Zen Garden water feature which makes sense as there is a Chinese mall (signage NOT in English) right across the street.

Many Embassy Suites hotels also have water features once again the one in Milpitas CA has one which is 4 stories tall (it's a waterfall) as did the one in NOLA and the one in Milpitas (in the heart of Silicon Valley) charges between 2-300/Night.

Amazing how non-Disney hotels can afford to maintain world class water features yet a Disney MONORAIL hotel with 1K PER NIGHT RATES. has a water feature which you could build with parts from the local Home Depot/Lowes.

 

[ford91exploder]

Brand advocates are working this thread hard. Merch carts will be in there by christmas 2015, and then maybe one day they can put a gift shop on the site of the old fountain with a BA set of Mickey ears reaching to the skylight

The BRAND advocates are out in force for this thread - it's fun.

 

[Little Green Men]

The fanbois are crawling out of the woodwork to defend Disney's latest depredation of it's legacy.

I guess it's a insult to Disney to compare them unfavorably to a national chain of hotels who have managed to maintain water large water features while still maintaining a per night rate which is about 15% of The Poly's room rate.

Disney did it It's MAGICal no matter what the product is... NOT!

I'm not sure if you're referring to me, and if not I apologize, but you could at least tag me if you're going to insult me. My point is that when you complain about everything it gets repetitive and your complaints start to lose merit. People will be like, "Oh there he goes complaining about something yet again". I don't care if you compare Disney to another hotel but you do realize that that's not the only water feature at the Polynesian Resort right? I don't see how people saying that they are going to wait until the lobby is complete is the "fanbois" out. I'm pretty sure you've said you didn't notice Disney's decline until your MyMagic plus troubles. If it wasn't for that would you have realized any of this?

 

[Sage of Time]

Mi amigos, stop the clucking. You sound like a bunch of old hens. There's a lot of birds waiting to go on.

 

[ford91exploder]

I'm not sure if you're referring to me, and if not I apologize, but you could at least tag me if you're going to insult me. My point is that when you complain about everything it gets repetitive and your complaints start to lose merit. People will be like, "Oh there he goes complaining about something yet again". I don't care if you compare Disney to another hotel but you do realize that that's not the only water feature at the Polynesian Resort right? I don't see how people saying that they are going to wait until the lobby is complete is the "fanbois" out. I'm pretty sure you've said you didn't notice Disney's decline until your MyMagic plus troubles. If it wasn't for that would you have realized any of this?

Ah attack the messenger instead of the message - Until MM+ managed to COMPLETELY RUIN TWO vacations by requiring that I spend 2-4 hours a day at GR EVERY DAY for a 'test' that I did not ask to be part of and I got NOTHING for my troubles except a headache and a upset stomach.

I was not sufficiently motivated to complain about Disney's decline until Disney managed to ruin a couple of expensive vacations for me (rest of family enjoyed because I took the hit for team family),

Disney fixed that problem by forcing me to participate in TWO of their so called 'tests' and in the process managed to screw up all my Disney accounts so here we are almost 3 years later and every time I log in (when I'm ABLE to log in) I have to fix SOMETHING so those bad experiences are kept front and center in my mind.

 

[Little Green Men]

Ah attack the messenger instead of the message - Until MM+ managed to COMPLETELY RUIN TWO vacations by requiring that I spend 2-4 hours a day at GR EVERY DAY for a 'test' that I did not ask to be part of and I got NOTHING for my troubles except a headache and a upset stomach.

I was not sufficiently motivated to complain about Disney's decline until Disney managed to ruin a couple of expensive vacations for me (rest of family enjoyed because I took the hit for team family),

Disney fixed that problem by forcing me to participate in TWO of their so called 'tests' and in the process managed to screw up all my Disney accounts so here we are almost 3 years later and every time I log in (when I'm ABLE to log in) I have to fix SOMETHING so those bad experiences are kept front and center in my mind.

I'm not attacking you, sorry if it came across that way. What does GR stand for? Sorry you had to go through that, I guess I just can't relate to that when the worst MM+ caused me was not knowing how to link an account and I got help with that.

EDIT: I think I figured GR. Guest Relations?

 

[dhall]

My goodness... the cries of doomsday over this... You go to a hotel, sleep, so you can enjoy the theme parks... Everyone step back, breathe... Life will be okay.

You go to a hotel to sleep; you go to a resort for a vacation. Disney's charging resort prices for a hotel experience.

 

[Disney Analyst]

For me, 1k a night is what you pay to stay at a Disney hotel, around the seven seas lagoon, by the worlds busiest theme park, which has direct monorail access... The lobby is not anywhere figured into that. It is a Disney hotel, you will pay a lot. If you don't like paying.. stay elsewhere.. as I shall always do. I could give a rats butt about a Disney hotel, or the lobby. The hotel looks nice still, it is convenient, and still unique, with fun and interesting amenities. If the hotel was only worth the price because of a damn waterfall... then I think the priorities of people are screwed up.

 

[Sage of Time]

For me, 1k a night is what you pay to stay at a Disney hotel, around the seven seas lagoon, by the worlds busiest theme park, which has direct monorail access... The lobby is not anywhere figured into that. It is a Disney hotel, you will pay a lot. If you don't like paying.. stay elsewhere.. as I shall always do. I could give a rats butt about a Disney hotel, or the lobby. The hotel looks nice still, it is convenient, and still unique, with fun and interesting amenities. If the hotel was only worth the price because of a **** waterfall... then I think the priorities of people are screwed up.

Theme matters.

Quality matters.

You're paying for a lesser product, with the waterfalls gone now.

The Polynesian might be the 'best' hotel in WDW for the reasons you mentioned, but a bit part of what made it aesthetically and historically special IS gone. No denying that.

I say this as a fan of the place as it was... and as it will be. The new lobby looks nice. But it will NEVER compare to what was once there and what should be there.

 

[ford91exploder]

I'm not attacking you, sorry if it came across that way. What does GR stand for? Sorry you had to go through that, I guess I just can't relate to that when the worst MM+ caused me was not knowing how to link an account and I got help with that.

EDIT: I think I figured GR. Guest Relations?

Unfortunately DW and I have Premier Passes (AP for DL and WDW) and I was visiting WDW when they first started rolling out MM+ and I was at BLT when all Contemporary Guests were assigned MB's (there was no selecting a KTTW card).

Basically our admission entitlements got hosed and we would be rejected at the gate, So off to GR who would see pass being VALID but no admission entitlements and then I would spend hours down the IT rathole, GR would give rest of family pass to get into park while I was stuck with the poor GR CM who had to deal with this mess.

Of course because of the temporary pass - NO FP and during said test we were among the group who DID NOT get to 'double dip'. The loss of FP was not a big deal to us because we would only pull a couple each day for some favorite rides - the big loss was time with the extended family (Grandparents+Kids) which is why I really resented the time lost fixing DISNEY's issues.

It's after this that I became a REFORMED Pixie Duster, And call out Disney at EVERY opportunity.

It would have been nice if Disney had done SOMETHING even something as prosaic as a we are sorry about your vacation letter.

I think because so many reputations were on the line no one was willing to admit that there were huge failures in the tests so the attitude was 'Guest be D-----ed' if they don't come back there are more to be found.

 

[ford91exploder]

Theme matters.

Quality matters.

You're paying for a lesser product, with the waterfalls gone now.

The Polynesian might be the 'best' hotel in WDW for the reasons you mentioned, but a bit part of what made it aesthetically and historically special IS gone. No denying that.

I say this as a fan of the place as it was... and as it will be. The new lobby looks nice. But it will NEVER compare to what was once there and what should be there.

I also am a fan of the Original Poly, One of the key components of a Grand hotel and it's major social center IS the lobby and it's why business oriented hotels have extensive lobbies with food and beverage service because the lobby is where you socialize.

The Old poly was the same - Even if we were not staying at the Poly we would visit the lobby and and have a couple adult beverages at least once and no we were not at the bar with the hardcore alcoholics drinking their vacation away. We just loved the ambience the sound of the water and the greenery.

That's all gone now now it's just a meh lobby like the BLT lobby which is as welcoming as a bus station.

That lobby WAS one of the reasons that Poly rooms commanded 1K night, Contemporary has most of the same amenities but it tops out at 600-700 mainly because of it's lack of grand public spaces.

 

[JLipnick]

While I admit i will miss the old lobby water feature a lot, how many people who stay there have stayed there before? I bet a very small percentage of people staying there have ever stepped foot in the resort before and so wouldn't know if the new lobby is better or worse than before as they would have nothing to compare it to. While I may not like the new lobby as much, it will be better than the walls. I look forward to my next trip in May with the pool and GCH no longer under construction.

 

[flynnibus]

While I admit i will miss the old lobby water feature a lot, how many people who stay there have stayed there before?

Raises hand...

I bet a very small percentage of people staying there have ever stepped foot in the resort before and so wouldn't know if the new lobby is better or worse than before as they would have nothing to compare it to

You forget people also tend to form favorites amoung their resorts and stay at the same one frequently. That was especially true for the Poly and lead to it's always being hard to book... before Disney went insane with the deluxe prices.

And the 'people are too ignorant to know any better...' defense is nothing any company who prides itself on it's product and delivery should be associated with.