Poly Construction

tikiman

Well-Known Member
The only thing that Disney has announced in letters to guests is the East Pool construction. They have been sending out the same letters since last March saying the pool construction would start in April and complete in early 2016. The pool closed in July so I would expect its completion to be later.
Currently the exteriors of the longhouses have been having siding replaces and repainted. This has been going on for months and is currently on the Hawaii and Tonga longhouse. Fiji, Tuvalu and Samoa are the only longhouses I saw completed. There are permits ( http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/wdw-permits-2015.894417/ ) that have been filed that the work still has not been done including 11 permits filed for exterior work and electrical to the 8 original longhouses. Unless permits can be filed months after the work starts than I would assume these permits filed at the end of last month are for future work.
You can see that the work to the outside of the longhouses right now has been disruptive to those in or around the longhouses and shuts down paths. I have been posting daily photos on my Tikimanpages Facebook page. There are also permits to work on the kitchen that ‘Ohana and Kona share that the work has not been done. There is no guarantee that all this work or any additional work will be done next Spring and right now there is much more going on than just the east pool construction.
If you call Disney and ask what construction is going on they will tell you only the East Pool but I just posted photos of large lifts being used to work on the side of the longhouses as of today and main paths being closed off.
With the plumbing problems they have had in the DVC units I would also expect to see some major work to be done to the DVC longhouses.
 

Stitch1617

New Member
Original Poster
Thanks so much, Tikiman. I'm thinking about a late August 2016 trip with a stay at the Poly, but would prefer if the construction was finished. I'ts a long way off so I'll keep checking in on it!
 

yaksplat

Well-Known Member
I was just there a couple weeks ago. We stayed in Rarotonga and the construction was near invisible to us. Other than noticing a lift with a worker nailing up boards on the side of Hawaii, there was really nothing to see. I did take a walk over to the quiet pool to see what was going on there and it is completely fenced off. That in no way impacted our vacation at all. The new lava pool is amazing and if you have kids, they'll love the new kids area at the pool.

By August 2016 you shouldn't see a thing unless you go looking for construction.
 

tikiman

Well-Known Member
I was just there a couple weeks ago. We stayed in Rarotonga and the construction was near invisible to us. Other than noticing a lift with a worker nailing up boards on the side of Hawaii, there was really nothing to see. I did take a walk over to the quiet pool to see what was going on there and it is completely fenced off. That in no way impacted our vacation at all. The new lava pool is amazing and if you have kids, they'll love the new kids area at the pool.

By August 2016 you shouldn't see a thing unless you go looking for construction.

Why would you have to take a walk to the East pool if is was right next to the building you were in?
I think that there is a lot to enjoy at the resort even with the work going on. With that said, telling someone they will not be affected by construction a year from now or even 4 days from now is giving people a false sense of security. You have no idea what will be going on where at the resort but the fact is that projects are still slated to happen. Next week there could be guys working on the balcony of the room you were just in and I think people would notice someone working on the exterior of their room. Guests have been finding workers on their balcony while they are in their room.
I think people just need to be aware that the possibility of construction going on during their stay is something they might want to know.

Disney said only the East Pool construction was going on during my visit last month and yet there was construction going on at Tuvalu, Samoa, the Great Ceremonial House and Hawaii along with heavy machinery at the East Pool. There will be continued work well into next year and possibly next summer.
 

yaksplat

Well-Known Member
Why would you have to take a walk to the East pool if is was right next to the building you were in?

It may sound odd, but since everywhere that we needed to go to was to the west, there was never a reason to go east. I was on the monorail side of the building and since this was my first trip to the poly, I didn't realize that the pool that was under construction was right next to the building. I didn't hear any construction going on at all and it wasn't until I was taking a walk around the resort that I ran into the construction.
 

johnvree

Member
Disney said only the East Pool construction was going on during my visit last month and yet there was construction going on at Tuvalu, Samoa, the Great Ceremonial House and Hawaii along with heavy machinery at the East Pool. There will be continued work well into next year and possibly next summer.

I called the Poly and asked them about the construction and they told me the same thing -- the entire resort has been updated and that they are only working on the East Pool. Not only is the construction not limited to the East Pool (based on the pictures on your Facebook page), but it is misleading for them to say that they are working only on the East Pool. The entire area around the East Pool, which is surrounded by six of the resort's 14 longhouses, is a complete construction zone. I don't know the square footage affected by the construction, but it is a big area.

This is a bit of a sore spot for me because I got burned by the last round of major construction at the Poly (I think in the mid-2000's). We paid a lot of money to stay there and there was construction going on in some of the longhouses, Captain Cook's was closed, and the GCH and the grounds was a series of brown walls. I complained to the front desk and they offered to move us. But the available options were not places we wanted to stay.
 

Stitch1617

New Member
Original Poster
This is a bit of a sore spot for me because I got burned by the last round of major construction at the Poly (I think in the mid-2000's). We paid a lot of money to stay there and there was construction going on in some of the longhouses, Captain Cook's was closed, and the GCH and the grounds was a series of brown walls. I complained to the front desk and they offered to move us. But the available options were not places we wanted to stay.[/QUOTE]

That's the thing. The Poly is not a place we can afford to stay at on a regular basis. It would probably be the one time we can stay there, so you want it to be as magical as possible. I'll keep watching and be prepared to possibly stay somewhere else next year and plan for the Poly in 2017.
 

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