PHOTOS - Grand Floridian DVC expansion pad extending out into the Seven Seas Lagoon

Deadmanwalking

New Member
Parking lot on the water side? Seems like it will be weird to have cars there plus it wouldn't look very appealing. I doubt Disney would do that....I hope.

l pics look great but it does look like they tried to cram it in to that small area.

Just be glad the bean counters didn't realize it would be cheaper to park barges on the lagoon and have a floating parking lot... to add to the bottom line they would do it.
 

montyz81

Well-Known Member
Why don't they just build on the site that currently doesn't have a hotel on it. The big wide open space between TTC and Contemporary.
 

Devin36

Member
Why don't they just build on the site that currently doesn't have a hotel on it. The big wide open space between TTC and Contemporary.

Pretty sure that land was said to have a sink hole & not be suitable for building...I think I read somewhere that the land was cleared with the intentions of building but they found a sink hole....so they planted trees & now it's a woodsy area......
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
Why don't they just build on the site that currently doesn't have a hotel on it. The big wide open space between TTC and Contemporary.
The site where they are putting it will be on the monorail line--big selling point for new DVCers. Plus, it already has a lot of the needed infrastructure (e.g. dining, shops, pools).
 

Tom

Beta Return
Why don't they just build on the site that currently doesn't have a hotel on it. The big wide open space between TTC and Contemporary.

Because it's still "reserved" for a future resort hotel.

Pretty sure that land was said to have a sink hole & not be suitable for building...I think I read somewhere that the land was cleared with the intentions of building but they found a sink hole....so they planted trees & now it's a woodsy area......

Urban legend ;)

The site where they are putting it will be on the monorail line--big selling point for new DVCers. Plus, it already has a lot of the needed infrastructure (e.g. dining, shops, pools).

The site montyz81 is referring to is also on the monorail line, between the TTC and Contemporary. This DVC will actually have a fairly long walkway to the transportation centers of the GF - longer than that at Wilderness Lodge Villas.
 

toolsnspools

Well-Known Member
From what I can tell in the blueprints, this will be the first DVC built without its own pool. The pool in the diagram is already there, and part of the GF. Makes me wonder if they aren't planning to convert rooms in GF to be DVC as well, like they did at AKL.
 

Devin36

Member
Are there any links to articles about the sink hole being an urban legend?
if you look on google maps there is a hole with water in the middle of that plot....so I kinda just figured it to be true....I could totally be wrong...
 

TestTrack

Active Member
Does this mean they'll fix the 50 billion lights that are out on the roof of the GF? It just looked sad when I was there in december...and only because I remember how it use to look in 2008.
 

BalooChicago

Well-Known Member
Are there any links to articles about the sink hole being an urban legend?

A "sink hole" would never prevent the construction of a building of any decent size. Foundation systems of large buildings can accomodate poor soil conditions. It just adds cost.
 

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
Why don't they just build on the site that currently doesn't have a hotel on it. The big wide open space between TTC and Contemporary.

Pretty sure that land was said to have a sink hole & not be suitable for building...I think I read somewhere that the land was cleared with the intentions of building but they found a sink hole....so they planted trees & now it's a woodsy area......
From what I have heard from people supposedly involved with the project that originally cleared and surveyed the property, the land is "not ideal for construction". What they found was a rather high water table which created a condition known as negative pile pressure. When test piles were driven into the ground they were actually sucked into the ground.

Now this does not mean that they could never build there. It simply means that building there will be expensive and maintenance and repair due to settling and/or sinking will need to be taken in account. Considering that they have elected to tear down existing buildings and disrupt their wedding pavilion for the last 2 construction projects around the 7 seas lagoon, leads me to believe that there are some serious problems with that patch of land.
 

montyz81

Well-Known Member
From what I have heard from people supposedly involved with the project that originally cleared and surveyed the property, the land is "not ideal for construction". What they found was a rather high water table which created a condition known as negative pile pressure. When test piles were driven into the ground they were actually sucked into the ground.

Now this does not mean that they could never build there. It simply means that building there will be expensive and maintenance and repair due to settling and/or sinking will need to be taken in account. Considering that they have elected to tear down existing buildings and disrupt their wedding pavilion for the last 2 construction projects around the 7 seas lagoon, leads me to believe that there are some serious problems with that patch of land.

Admiral Joe didn't put quite enough material to make it buildable for another hotel when they first constructed the lake?
 

Devin36

Member
Pretty much what I assumed....so what I read was correct in basically saying the land was not ideal for building....I mean of course with enough money ANYTHING can be done....but some things are just not a smart move....

So it is not an urban legend
 

RunnerEd

Well-Known Member
From what I have heard from people supposedly involved with the project that originally cleared and surveyed the property, the land is "not ideal for construction". What they found was a rather high water table which created a condition known as negative pile pressure. When test piles were driven into the ground they were actually sucked into the ground.

Now this does not mean that they could never build there. It simply means that building there will be expensive and maintenance and repair due to settling and/or sinking will need to be taken in account. Considering that they have elected to tear down existing buildings and disrupt their wedding pavilion for the last 2 construction projects around the 7 seas lagoon, leads me to believe that there are some serious problems with that patch of land.

I'm not discounting anything that you said above but have an additional question since you seem to know what you're talking about. If this is the case, how has the monorail stay safe? Is it simply a weight issue since the beam/train combination doesn't weight nearly as much as a building would? Thanks!
 

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
I'm not discounting anything that you said above but have an additional question since you seem to know what you're talking about. If this is the case, how has the monorail stay safe? Is it simply a weight issue since the beam/train combination doesn't weight nearly as much as a building would? Thanks!
The specifics of this area of structural engineering is a bit out of my comfort zone as my area of work starts about 8' above grade, so unfortunately all I can offer is a hypothesis or two, all of which could be true to vary degrees. It might simply be a case of the area of land that the resort will go being unsuitable while the area that the monorail is built was fine. The loads for a monorail would be less that a multi-story building and might have been low enough to deal with the site issues, or they might have driven deeper piles for the monorail supports in that area.
 

tikiman

Well-Known Member
During some discussions I had with people at the Polynesian last October about the changes at the resort there was mention of the volcano pool having some cracking at the zero entry due to a possible sinking of the land. Was not able to get anyone to talk about it after that discussion.
 

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